Police say evidence implicates assistant principal in wife's death

Police have forensic evidence they say implicates Great Bridge High School assistant principal Wesley Earnest in the death of his wife. Earnest told an investigator he used to own, but no longer had, a handgun of the same type that was used to kill her.

Those details were included in a warrant Bedford County investigators used to search a trailer believed to be owned by Earnest. They conducted the search Thursday, a day after Earnest was charged with the murder of Jocelyn Earnest. The couple had been getting a divorce.

Investigators also have searched for .357-caliber bullets, condoms and electronic storage media at a campground in the Deep Creek section of Chesapeake. They seized only a spiral notebook, according to the search warrant.

Jocelyn Earnest, 38, was shot with a .357-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver that was found at her home in Forest, investigators believe. A co-worker found her body there on Dec. 20. She had been shot in the head.

In the home, investigators also found condoms and computer-generated paperwork they believe did not belong to her, according to the warrant filed in Chesapeake Circuit Court. Those items were sent to the Western Laboratory in Roanoke. According to the warrant, forensic evidence positively identified Wesley Earnest.

Earnest, 37, told Bedford County investigator Mike Mayhew he had purchased a similar handgun but no longer owned it, the warrant states.

Earnest signed a rental agreement for the campsite on Dec. 26, under the name Wesley Earnest Wimmer. The 27-foot Terry camping trailer is still at the campsite on South George Washington Highway.

Chesapeake school spokesman Tom Cupitt said Thursday that Earnest did not have a local address when he was hired in 2005. He said school officials knew Earnest would be renting rooms and commuting to Bedford County. Records available online indicate he had owned property there and had obtained a concealed-weapon permit.

Earnest is being held without bail in Bedford County. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Students at Great Bridge said Friday that rumors about a murder investigation had been swirling for weeks. Earnest took a leave from work in January and was suspended without pay Thursday.

"Everyone knew something was going on," senior Nathaniel Matthews said. "It wasn't a surprise when we heard it on the news."

Three students said Earnest would wave to students in the hall. They said he often let students off with warnings instead of getting them in trouble.

"He was liked by a majority of the student body," senior Kenny Smith said.

Matthews and Smith said rumors had been going around for a while about Earnest being accused of murder. Several students in Smith's government class decided to write about Earnest's arrest during the current events part of the class.

In Bedford, a former neighbor of the Earnests, Lisa Jennings, remembered the couple as athletic, outgoing and smart. Jocelyn Earnest liked to play volleyball and run in the neighborhood, Jennings said.

The Earnests waved as they came and went, Jennings said. "They were nice people, as far as we knew."

Jennings said Jocelyn stayed home a lot and often had friends over to swim in the pool in the gated backyard, where a wind chime still catches the wind.

"When he lived here, he was very friendly and seemed to want to be active with the neighborhood," she said of Wesley Earnest.

Staff writer John Hopkins contributed to this report.

Amy Couteé, (757) 222-5216, amy.coutee@pilotonline.com

Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com