Man facing murder charge held without bond

By Tony Gonzalez

Published: November 30, 2008

The suspect in the Sunday afternoon shooting of a 20-year-old Stuarts Draft woman is being held without bond after arrest Sunday night near the North Carolina border.

A Virginia State Police trooper arrested John Michael Mason, 27, after he wrecked his rental car about one mile from the state border, said 1st Sgt. Mike Musser of the Galax office of the state police.

Mason wrecked his car on Route 620, not far from Exit 1 on Interstate 77 in a remote area of Lambsburg, Va. At about 8 p.m., a trooper responded to scene, finding Mason intoxicated. Once out of the car, he appeared to be “concealing something in his clothing,“ Musser said, and he refused to show his hands.

“At that point he and the trooper … wrestled to the ground,“ Musser said.

The trooper discovered a loaded .380 pistol in Mason’s waistband.

“Naturally, anytime we find a weapon on someone that we’re unaware of it, it’s construed the trooper’s life was in jeopardy,“ Musser said. “We don’t know if he was going for the firearm or trying to conceal it.“

Taken before the magistrate in Hillsville, Va., authorities discovered Mason wanted on charges of first-degree murder, use of a firearm in a felony and possession of a firearm after being convicted of a felony in relation to the fatal shooting of Amanda Kay Bush, which occurred about five hours earlier in Staunton. Mason faces additional firearm charges and charges of DUI and resisting arrest in relation to the arrest. He is being held without bond at New River Valley Regional Jail in Dublin, Va.

Staunton police responded to the 2700 block of Knollwood Drive at about 2:45 p.m., where Bush was found in the street with neighbors at her side. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Virginia State Police sex offender registry lists Mason as on probation for 2002 and 2003 convictions in relation to having carnal knowledge of a child aged 13 to 15 in Staunton and Augusta County. Court records show Mason convicted of hit-and-run, eluding police and maiming caused by DWI in 2003, as well as under-aged possession of alcohol, petty larceny and a gas drive-off.