Local News
Judge separates trials in toddler death case
FRONT ROYAL – Separate trials will be held for a couple charged in the case of toddler twin boys, one of whom died while the other suffered serious injuries on November 8, 2017 in their Linden home.
In Warren County Circuit Court on Friday, Judge Clifford L. Athey Jr. granted requests to try Chad Andrew Ritchie and Tabitha Rose Zimmerman separately, rather than together, as originally ordered.
Ritchie and Zimmerman, both 29, shared a Blue Mountain Road home last year when the toddler died and his brother was injured. Both stand charged with two counts each of child endangerment. Ritchie is charged with second-degree murder in the death of one of Zimmerman’s two-year-old twin boys and malicious wounding of the other.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Layton filed a motion to withdraw his original motion to join Ritchie’s and Zimmerman’s cases for trial. Layton also withdrew his objection to a defense motion to try the cases separately.
Ritchie’s trial is scheduled to begin Monday; Zimmerman’s trial is set for next spring.
Tabitha Zimmerman /Photo courtesy RSW Regional Jail
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