Nichole Brooks murder trial rescheduled to May
Jan. 24—PRINCETON — A trial for a Bluefield woman charged with first-degree murder in the November 2022 shooting which took the life of a 13-year-old girl was postponed Monday and rescheduled for May.
Nichole Brooks, 43, was brought before Circuit Court Judge Derek Swope for a motions hearing. Brooks was scheduled for trial, but her attorney, Joseph Harvey, asked the court to wait until a psychological evaluation of her codefendant and daughter, Isis Wallace, 22, of Bluefield was completed.
Swope scheduled a status hearing in early April for Brooks, with the trial set to begin in May.
Brooks told Swope that she agreed not to be tried during the circuit court's current term.
Brooks and her daugher, Isis Wallace, 22, of Bluefield were arrested and charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and wanton endangerment involving a firearm after a shooting on March 23, 2022 at the intersection of Route 460 and Cumberland Road in Bluefield. Brooks and Wallace then fled to Delaware where they were later apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Both Wallace and Brooks are being held without bond at the Southern Regional Jail. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Lawson represented the state at Brooks hearing.
The case began March 23, 2022 when the Bluefield Police Department responded to a call about a domestic altercation at Brooks and Wallace's home on Memorial Avenue.
Wallace's boyfriend was arrested, charged with domestic battery and later released on bond. His sister drove up from North Carolina to get him, and brought her 13-year-old daughter with her, according to investigators. He then returned to Memorial Avenue with his sister and her daughter to collect his belongings. There was another altercation, and a neighbor's home security video showed Wallace firing at the car as it departed. Other security videos showed Brooks and Wallace leaving in a white SUV and taking the same route as the one used by the car carrying the boyfriend.
The vehicles reached the intersection of Cumberland Road and Route 460.
The 13-year-old girl in the vehicle carrying Wallace's former boyfriend and his sister was hit by a gunshot fired from Brooks and Wallace's vehicle, according to investigators. The girl was taken to Princeton Community Hospital and transferred to a Charleston hospital where officials said she later died.
Wallace's trial was scheduled to start Jan. 10, but her attorneys, Paul Cassell and Derrick Lefler, made a motion to reschedule the trial until the defense received the psychological report about their client. Wallace also gave up her right to have her trial during the current court session, and Swope set a new trial date for early April.
Both Wallace and Brooks are being held without bond at the Southern Regional Jail.
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
