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Wyoming County man pleads guilty to bus driver murder

WYOMING COUNTY, W.Va. — A Wyoming County man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the 2013 murder of a school bus driver.

John New, 22, of Brier Creek, has plead guilty to first degree murder and will never be eligible for parole.

Investigators have said the victim, Elaine Birchfield, was killed when she walked into her Brenton home in Feb. 2013 while New was in the middle of a burglary.

After the murder, he took off in her vehicle and was arrested a day later in Mingo County.

Birchfield, 60, had driven a bus at Huff Consolidated School in Wyoming County.

Previously, deputies with the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Department had said there was no prior relationship between New and Birchfield.

New originally faced additional charges of daytime robbery and grand larceny.





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