Mental evaluation ordered in alleged firebomb threat

Published 6:31 pm Tuesday, May 8, 2018

By Elizabeth Pattman

Staff writer

The arraignment of accused bomber Joseph “Andy” Wright was continued as the court awaits the results of a mental evaluation. 

Wright is accused of threatening to burn down the house of Isle of Wight County Circuit Court Judge Wayne Farmer. The April 18 arraignment was rescheduled for July 16. 

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Wright will undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial and if he was sane at the time of the threats, according to Commonwealth’s Attorney Georgette Phillips. 

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Wright was arrested in March after an informant contacted the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Department alerting them of Wright’s alleged plan to push explosives through Farmer’s doggie door, destroying the judge’s home and family, according to court documents.

Wright has recently been living in the Morgart’s Beach area of Isle of Wight County, near Farmer’s residence. 

The informant said Wright told him that Farmer was responsible for “the loss of everything in his life, to include his marriage, family and home,” according to court documents.

Farmer was the commonwealth’s attorney when Wright was having a series of disputes with former neighbor Julius Munford, which ended up in court in 2014. According to a video made by Wright, titled “Polygraph Rap,” he did not achieve his desired results in court.

Court documents state that Wright showed an informant several large plastic containers and talked of his plan to fill them with explosive materials and slide them into Farmer’s home through the doggie door.

Isle of Wight Sheriff’s investigators and the Virginia State Police bomb and arson unit following through on the search warrant for Wright’s Gurwen Drive home found a box of switches, fuses, a rocket kit, cannon fuse, paint hand grenades, 14 containers of smokeless powder, PVC pipe, a 2-pound jar of explosives, five boxes of CO2 cartridges, two books titled, “Spite, Malice and Revenge,” and “Book of Dirty Tricks,” as well as 21.4 grams of suspected marijuana and other items. 

Wright is charged with threatening to bomb or damage a building, which is a felony, and is currently being held in the Western Tidewater Regional Jail. His July 16 court appearance will evaluate the results of a mental evaluation completed by a doctor, Phillips said.

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