KINGWOOD — An Albright man is charged with second-degree murder after allegedly killing his girlfriend’s cousin.
Andrew Woods Prudnick, 28, is in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail in lieu of bond.
According to the criminal complaint by West Virginia State Police Trooper B.A. Rose, the call came in about 9 p.m. Monday from an apartment on North Preston Highway, in the Valley Point area.
According to the complaint, Ryan Sines, of Friendsville, Md., was dead on the scene when officers arrived. He was lying in a parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds.
Two pistols were found inside the victim’s clothing, along with a knife on the ground above his head and a machete lying on the ground beside his leg.
Prudnick “advised he shot the victim during a verbal altercation that was not physical.” Sines had his hand in his pocket when he was shot, Prudnick told officers, according to the complaint.
“The defendant advised the pistols found in possession of the victim were [Prudnick’s]. The defendant did not advise while being spoken to, that at anytime did the victim brandish a weapon,” according to the complaint.
After Prudnick was read his Miranda rights, he declined to talk to officers further without an attorney present.
Ashley Saunders, who is identified as Prudnick’s live in girlfriend and the victim’s cousin, told police she brought Sines with her to pick up her belongings and saw Sines going through Prudnick’s possessions in a room.
“She advised the defendant was known to steal things,” but she hadn’t seen Sines steal anything and didn’t know if he took anything from the room. Saunders told police Prudnick didn’t want Sines there.
Saunders, “initially stated that the victim had a gun and knife but did not say if the victim brandished a weapon, Ms. Saunders later stated that she did not know if the victim had any weapons on his person other than a knife and she did not see the victim brandish any weapons,” the officer wrote.
Police said Saunders told them the firearms on the victim “must have been stolen from her and” Prudnick’s residence. She told police she didn’t see what Sines was doing when Prudnick allegedly shot him.
No other witnesses reported seeing Sines brandish a weapon, according to the complaint.
The complaint concludes that, “At this point in this investigation there is no evidence suggesting the victim brandished a weapon or that the defendant even knew the victim was in possession of a weapon.”
TWEET@DominionPostWV
