Court testimony added new detail to allegations that a Randolph County man shot his brother several times and that another man helped stop the wounded victim from escaping.
ELKINS, W.Va. — A Randolph County case accusing one West Virginia man of shooting his brother several times with a .22-caliber revolver, and accusing a second man of helping hold the wounded victim, has moved ahead after a magistrate found probable cause at a Feb. 23 hearing.
The case matters now because it has shifted from the first burst of police reports to sworn testimony in court, giving a clearer account of what prosecutors say happened on Feb. 12 at a home on Mule Hollow Road in Montrose. Authorities allege Derek Justin Arbogast shot his brother, Brett Lee Arbogast, multiple times and that Larry Brian Talkington helped stop Brett Arbogast from getting away. Both men remain jailed on felony counts tied to the shooting, and the case is expected to go before a Randolph County grand jury.
According to state police, troopers were sent to Mule Hollow Road at about 9:15 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 12, after a report of a shooting. Investigators said Brett Arbogast, 31, of Elkins had been shot several times with a .22-caliber revolver at the Montrose residence. In later court testimony, Brett Arbogast said he had just returned home and handed his brother a bag of items when the encounter turned violent. His brother gave him what Brett described as a hard stare, and when he asked what was wrong, Derek Arbogast answered, “You know what,” before pulling a revolver and firing, Brett Arbogast testified. He said the first shot struck him between the eyes and a second hit him above the left ear within seconds. The shooting, he told the court, quickly turned into a struggle for the gun inside the house.
Police and witness accounts agree on the broad outline but differ in some details that may matter later. State police said Derek Arbogast shot his brother multiple times, and investigators later concluded that Talkington, 62, restrained the victim and dragged him back inside the residence to keep him from leaving. Brett Arbogast testified that after he was shot in the head twice, he fought with his brother and was hit again in the right hand while trying to take the gun away. He said he then tried to leave to get medical help, but Talkington grabbed him by the hoodie and tried to pull him back inside. Brett Arbogast told the court he broke free, made it outside and fell down the steps. He said Derek Arbogast followed and fired two more shots, one hitting his upper left arm and another the back of his head. Troopers have publicly said the victim was flown from the scene to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown. His current medical condition has not been publicly detailed, but at the hearing he appeared with a cast on his right hand and visible marks on his head.
The case became more detailed as officers described what they saw before and after the arrest. Trooper H.J. Bonetti testified that emergency officials identified Derek Arbogast as the shooter while officers were still heading to the residence. Bonetti said he encountered a man walking along the roadway, later identified as Derek Arbogast, who raised his hands and dropped to his knees when he saw the patrol car. Bonetti testified that before the arrest, Arbogast said he “just wanted everything to be over with.” Another trooper, Thomas J. Sclimenti, testified that Arbogast said the gun used in the shooting was in a nearby bush. Officers recovered the revolver there, Sclimenti said, but the barrel and cylinder were not attached. The cylinder was later found lower in the bush by the State Police Crime Scene Team, while the barrel had not been recovered at the time of the hearing. Earlier reporting also described an alleged remark from Arbogast after officers asked about his brother’s condition, but that statement has not yet been tested through a trial record. What is clear from the court hearing is that investigators believe the gun, the scene and the injury pattern support the charge that the shooting continued after the victim tried to flee.
The setting adds to the seriousness of the case. Montrose is a small Randolph County community, and the events unfolded inside a shared home where, according to Brett Arbogast, several relatives and other residents had been living. He testified that the revolver had belonged to the brothers’ father and was usually kept in a gun cabinet, with ammunition stored in the father’s bedroom. Brett Arbogast said he did not know when his brother got the gun. He also testified that there had been no argument that day about money, property or a woman. In one of the hearing’s most personal moments, Brett Arbogast said he had previously tried to get protective orders and mental hygiene intervention for his brother because his behavior had worsened, but those efforts were denied. He also said Derek Arbogast used methamphetamine regularly and had for years accused people in the house of sexually assaulting him at night. Brett Arbogast testified that the death of their father on Feb. 10, two days before the shooting, would have greatly affected his brother. None of those statements resolve the criminal charge, but they offer a possible picture of the tensions and instability prosecutors and defense lawyers may revisit if the case moves deeper into court.
For now, the legal posture is still at an early but important stage. Derek Arbogast is charged with first-degree attempted murder. At the Feb. 23 hearing in Randolph County Magistrate Court, Magistrate Tracy Harper found probable cause and denied a defense request to change Derek Arbogast’s $150,000 cash-only bond to a property or 10% bond. Defense attorney James Hawkins Jr. argued the cash-only bond was excessive. Assistant Randolph County Prosecutor Leckta Poling opposed a reduction, saying Arbogast posed a threat to the alleged victim and to the public. The court agreed to keep the existing bond in place. Reporting on Talkington’s case has described his charge in different ways, including first-degree attempted murder and principal in second-degree attempted murder or accessory before the fact. What remains to be sorted in court is how prosecutors will formally frame his role once the case reaches the next phase. The immediate next step for Derek Arbogast, according to the hearing report, is grand jury consideration in Randolph County. Jail records and local reports indicate both men remained at Tygart Valley Regional Jail after their arrests.
The human weight of the case came through most clearly from the witness chair. Brett Arbogast described bullets still lodged in his body and said future surgeries would be needed to remove some of them. He testified that the gunshot wound to his hand left a broken middle finger and a bullet lodged in the bone, while the wounds to his head had not yet been fully repaired. “If it wasn’t for the Lord, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” he told the court. Troopers, meanwhile, described a dark roadside encounter, a damaged gun in a bush and a wounded man rushed out of a rural hollow for emergency care. The mix of family ties, a recently shared bereavement and accusations of repeated close-range gunfire has made the case one of the starkest criminal filings to emerge from Randolph County this year. Still, the central legal question remains the same one that governs any felony prosecution: whether prosecutors can prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the shooting and the alleged restraint amounted to attempted murder and not some lesser offense.
Both defendants were still being reported in custody, as of March 17, the victim had survived, and the case was awaiting its next formal step in Randolph County court, with grand jury review the clearest milestone now on the calendar.