Jesus Reyes
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) – A federal lawsuit alleging gross negligence against a Virginia law enforcement agency for hiring a deputy who went on to kill a Riverside couple and their daughter in order to abduct the youngest member of the household before killing himself is gradually proceeding toward trial, the plaintiffs said today.
The estate of Mark James Winek and his wife, Sharie Anne Winek, filed suit against the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in 2023 over alleged deficiencies in the hiring of 28-year-old Austin Lee Edwards of North Chesterfield, Virginia.
“This case matters because it’s about more than one family’s tragedy — it’s about police accountability and whether we accept a system where law enforcement can ignore red flags, skip basic background checks and face no consequences when their systemic failures result in tragic deaths,” plaintiffs attorney Neil Gehlawat, with law firm Taylor & Ring, told City News Service.
In the last several weeks, U.S. District Judge James Jones in Abingdon, Virginia, ruled the wrongful death civil action against the sheriff’s office did not contain hollow claims, as the defense contended, clearing the way for pretrial discovery. The process was expected to take months.
The plaintiffs include Mychelle Blandin, 46, and her niece, identified in court documents only as “R.W.,” who was the target of Edwards in the fall of 2022. The suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages for the plaintiffs’ loss and suffering, alleges a range of failings that led to the rogue lawman’s relatively fast placement on the Washington County Sheriff’s Office payroll in early November 2022.
Only a few weeks later, he murdered Mark Winek, 69, Sharie Winek, 65, and their daughter — R.W.’s mother — Brooke Elizabeth Winek, 38, according to the plaintiffs.
“The sheriff’s office should have known about Edwards’ mental health history,” court papers stated. “The agency’s negligence in hiring, supervising and retaining Edwards was a substantial factor in his carrying out the murders.”
He was a Virginia state trooper from January 2022 to the end of October 2022, when he resigned and then applied to work for the sheriff’s office.
Austin Lee Edwards
He was briefly committed to a mental hospital in 2016 after an altercation with his father in which he threatened to kill the elderly man after self-inflicting cuts to his hand, according to court documents.
The plaintiffs’ investigation uncovered that Edwards’ father was never contacted by the detective handling background investigations for the sheriff’s office, William Smarr, nor did the investigator try to ascertain whether Edwards had ever been arrested or placed under psychiatric care for suicidal tendencies, which he had.
The plaintiffs further noted in documents that Smarr didn’t verify whether Edwards was even permitted under Virginia law to be in possession of a gun, which he wasn’t as a result of the domestic violence episode involving his dad, and the background investigation didn’t include a pre-screening psychological exam — even after Edwards failed a polygraph exam.
Smarr also allegedly ignored the fact that Edwards did not answer questions on his sheriff’s application pertaining to ever having been the subject of a restraining order, or whether he had ever “acted out in violence toward another person,” the plaintiffs said.
When the investigator called the Virginia State Police to get some idea of the applicant’s work history, the agency’s “representative stated he was not comfortable discussing” the matter, according to the complaint. Smarr apparently never followed up.
Although Smarr is named as a defendant, the suit ultimately places blame on Sheriff Blake Andis for the flawed process that led to Edwards being hired as a sworn deputy only days after his resignation from the state police.
In his response to the civil complaint, Andis repeatedly stated he lacked “sufficient information to either admit or deny the allegations.”
According to the plaintiffs and the Riverside Police Department, on Nov. 22, 2022, Edwards drove roughly 2,500 miles to rendezvous with Brooke Winek’s 15-year-old daughter at her grandparents’ home at 11261 Price Court. Police said Edwards was involved in a predatory “catfishing” relationship with the girl, convincing her via online chats that he was a 17-year-old boy.
He arrived the morning after Thanksgiving, representing himself as a “detective,” flashing his sheriff’s badge and telling Mark and Sharie Winek that he needed to question them in connection with unspecified online activity involving their granddaughter, who was then running errands with her mother.
“Edwards instructed Sharie to call Brooke,” the complaint stated. “Sharon told Brooke that the detective wanted Brooke and R.W. to come to the home immediately.”
He directed the woman to come into the home alone, leaving her mobile phone and daughter in her car. Brooke Winek complied, entering the Price Court residence by herself.
R.W. became restless after a short period of not knowing what might be transpiring in her grandparents’ residence. She walked inside and “discovered Edwards had murdered her mother,” the complaint said. The coroner’s report indicated Brooke Winek’s spinal cord was severed from a stab wound to the neck.
“Edwards had also attempted to murder her grandparents by asphyxiation,” according to court papers. “Her grandparents were both hog-tied with bags over their heads, but at least one of them was still moving when R.W. entered the home.”
Edwards set fire to the residence and led R.W. out of the house to his Kia Soul. As he was making his getaway with the teen, an alert neighbor called 911, concerned for her safety after sensing there was a problem.
Patrol officers were headed to the location when 911 dispatchers began receiving reports of a fire on the cul-de-sac. Crews knocked down the blaze inside the Winek home and discovered the victims’ bodies.
Edwards’ vehicle was quickly identified, and a region-wide search was initiated, culminating in a pursuit by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies, who spotted the car going northbound on Highway 247 and then 62. The fugitive lawman lost control of the car and drove off the road. R.W. fled, and Edwards got out and leveled his pistol at a sheriff’s helicopter, prompting deputies to open fire. It was at that point he fatally shot himself.
R.W. was uninjured. She’s now in the care of her aunt.
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Courtesy: Governor Brad Little’s Office
