Photo of protestors outside Calhoun Courthouse
The Preliminary hearing of Jacob Daniel McCumbers was held Monday morning in the Magistrate Court Room of Calhoun County Courthuse. Jackson County Magistrate Tamra Milhoan, sitting in for recused Calhoun Magistrates, opened the hearing at 9:50 a.m. to address the State of West Virginia’s motion to quash a subpoena issued by the Defense Attorney George Cosenza for the juvenile victim.
Prosecuting Attorney,L. Elizabeth “Betsy” Coffey, sitting in for recused Calhoun Prosecutor, requested the court quash the subpoena due to the fact that the child was under 15 years of age. Further stating the reason not to compel the child’s testimony, because he was not prepared and it would be exceptionally traumatic to sit in the courtroom and testify before the accused, his families and multiple others.
Defense Attorney George Cosenza argued that the child had been through a forensic interview and that the court should keep in mind the the child is almost 16. He continued to argue that it was the court’s discretion, but the Supreme Court recognizes that the defendant has a right to call witnesses, and the child is the only one that can testify to the matters of the event. Cosenza complained that in was an unreasonable burden on Mr. McCumbers not to have the witness testify and that “15 year old’s testify all the time.We have to consider the rights of Mr. McCumbers and the very serious charges that are against him.”
Prosecutor Coffey remarked with regard to Cosenza’s request that It had been a struggle to schedule the hearing in a timely manner and that her office and the Defendan’ts Attorney had gone back and forth. Attorney Cosenza did not request the juvenile’s subpoena until the latter part of last week, not allowing the State time to to have the juvenile evaluated for the ability to testify. She also questioned whether or not Attorney Cosenza was questioning the credibility of the WV State Police and WV Child Protective Service Workers that would testify in the case.
Cosenza denied that he was questioning their testimony as not credible.
Magistrate Milhoan told both parties that she too had spent the weekend researching matters of handling this case and she determined that she would not allow the juvenile testimony, the subpoena was quashed.
The first State’s witness to testify was Trooper Erica Schoolcraft. Having served with the WV State Police for eleven years, she now works for the Crimes Against Children Unit where she has investigated 50 or so cases in that position and stated that she had likely investigated 100’s of cases in the course of her entire career.
In her testimony Trooper Schoolcraft stated that the case began with a phone call from Calhoun Sheriff Graham Knight who had received text messages regarding Jacob McCumbers, and due to the fact that at that time he was a Commissioner for Calhoun County, Sheriff Knight requested an outside investigation. With the information provided forensic interviews were set up with the children living in the home of Jacob McCumbers.
In explicit questioning regarding the accusations made against Jacob McCumbers, the juvenile questioned disclosed that he had been physically and sexually abused since the age of seven by Jacob McCumbers. Telling the interviewer that the abuse by Jacob McCumbers was the manual sexual contact of the child’s sex organs approximately 4 times a week at a minimum of 50 times.
Prosecuting Attorney Coffey questioned the Trooper regarding the other two children in the home, if they had reported abuse, for which the Trooper responded no.
When Defense Attorney Cosenza began to cross examine the trooper, he questioned details from the victim forensic interview regarding the dates and length of the interviews of all three children, whether or not the Trooper attended or viewed the interview recordings. Trooper Schoolcraft stated that she did not attend the forensic interviews but had watched the recordings. When questioned if the children had revealed dates of the events, she said that the only specific time of an assault revealed was during the family vacation in Tennessee in the year 2025 when the victim stated that something had happened while on vacation. When Cosenza asked what exactly had happened on vacation the Trooper stated that it was the same as what happened dat home when McCumbers would manually stimulate his sex organs.
Cosenza also questioned how the Trooper arrived at the number of 50 counts, when technically no exact number was given by the accuser. Trooper Schoolcraft stated that she was instructed by her supervisor, Sergeant Yeager to charge Mr. McCumbers for 15 counts.
Prosecuting Attorney Coffey addressed the number as well under cross examination when she asked the Trooper if the number accounted by the victim was possibly as high as 1,650. The Trooper said it was. Fifty was the minimum they settled on for charging him.
The questioning of Trooper Schoolcraft continued by Cosenza when he asked her if there were any other victims reported. There was no report of the other two children having been abused, the officer stated however, that the investigation was not complete regarding the report of other students having been abused. When asked what had prompted the investigation into Mr. McCumbers, Trooper Schoolcraft replied that a child in the home had reported to another child in the home that both physical and sexual abuse was happening to him after one year of living in the home, and continued until just a few months prior to them being removed from the McCumbers residence.
When questioned about the presence of physical evidence, the Trooper responded there was not, but the evidence gathered is at the lab. Saying there was no other evidence, other than the victim’s statement.
The final witness of the hearing was Mikayla Page, a Calhoun CPS Worker who had received a referral on Jacob McCumbers. Ms. Page met with two of the three children in the McCumbers home to collect information on their safety. Not a report of abuse. The case was then given to Wood County CPS for further investigation. The children were not removed from the home until an interview was conducted with the third child who reported that both physical and sexual abuse had occurred in the home. He stated that he would hear Mr. McCumbers go into the victim’s room at night and then come out about ten minutes later.
Magistrate Milhoan found probable cause from the testimony to send the case forward to the circuit Court of Calhoun County. The defendant’s bond and home incarceration remained the same. It was requested to have home incarceration be changed to Calhoun County because Roane County was more expensive and the issue of Mr. McCumbers being a Commissioner was no longer relevant after his resignation.
The case matters from this point forward will be a matter of Circuit Court.
Grand Jury for Calhoun Circuit Court will convene on January 5th, 2026
