More details on alleged fratricide incident

By Linda Cicoira

When authorities responded to a home in the Exmore area earlier this month, they found the body of 43-year-old Adam Todd Ashby in the front yard, court records disclosed Monday.

“The victim had stab wounds and lacerations to the face, neck, upper torso, and genital area,” Lt. Michelle Hallett, of the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in a warrant filed in Domestic Relations Court. He died at the scene.

Forty-six-year-old Samuel Pettit Ashby, his older brother, “was located at the residence” on Occohannock Road, where both men lived, the officer continued. “His clothes were disheveled, he had red stains consistent with blood on his clothes, and had lacerations on his hands.”

Samuel Ashby was charged with second-degree murder.

When interviewed by police, “he advised he had stabbed his brother, Adam Ashby, first in the residence while Adam was lying on the couch in the living room, and then multiple times outside, and while he was on the ground.” Lt. Hallett wrote that the accused stated that he left his brother “in the front yard.”

The body was taken to the Norfolk Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy. Samuel Ashby continues to be held in the Eastern Shore Regional Jail. A February preliminary hearing is scheduled.