Trending
PARKERSBURG - A woman who told 911 dispatchers she shot a man three times after he attempted to touch her inappropriately was indicted on charges of murder and wanton endangerment by the Wood County Grand Jury.
Claudia Torres, 20, in custody without bond at the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County, was among 96 people indicted, according to a release from the Wood County Prosecutor's Office Friday afternoon.
Torres, a Clarksburg resident, was arrested Feb. 28 after Parkersburg Police were dispatched to a 40th Street residence in reference to an adult male who sustained multiple gunshot wounds. According to a criminal complaint filed in Wood County Magistrate Court, Austin Lamb, 28, of Parkersburg, was declared dead at the scene.
Torres called 911 and said she shot Lamb three times after he allegedly tried to grope her, the criminal complaint said.
Two witnesses said Torres and Lamb got into an argument on the way home from a bar before being separated. One witness said she saw Lamb enter the house while Torres went to her truck, then saw Torres enter the house before hearing multiple shots, the complaint said. The other witness said he was in the house when Torres entered and fired multiple shots at Lamb.
Also indicted and in custody at the regional jail was Brian Ray Donze, 52, who is charged with 10 counts of first-degree sexual assault that allegedly occurred between December and March; 18 counts of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian, custodian or person in a position of trust and eight counts of first-degree sexual abuse from April 2024 to March of this year and one count of distribution and exhibition of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct from March.
Donze was booked into the jail on March 4 and remains in custody on a $1.8 million bond. He pleaded not guilty to the initial charges of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian, first-degree sexual assault and incest, according to court records.
Prosecutor Pat Lefebure referred questions about the case to the criminal complaint. A request for a copy of the complaint from Wood County Magistrate Court was denied because the complaint was not "open to the public," according to a person who answered the phone in the magistrate clerk's office. In the past, court officials have cited a state law prohibiting the release of information that could identify victims in an arrest, investigation or complaint regarding sexual assault, abuse and related crimes without a court order.
Lefebure later said he could not provide additional information, citing ethics concerns about publicly discussing a case before it goes to trial.
A complaint against Thomas Edward Carpenter, 54, 2314 Lynn St., Parkersburg , also was not released. Carpenter was indicted by this session of the grand jury on five counts of second-degree sexual assault, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and seven counts of sexual assault by a parent, guardian, custodian or person in a position of trust that allegedly occurred between January 2025 and May of this year.
Carpenter was arrested in April on two counts of second-degree sexual assault and released on a $20,000 bond.
The complete list of individuals indicted can be found online at newsandsentinel.com and will appear in a print edition next week.