No bail for man accused in Christiansburg sword and drugs incident
Mike Gangloff 16 hrs ago

CHRISTIANSBURG — A man accused of wounding his brother’s best friend with a sword last week can await his trial in jail, a Montgomery County judge said Wednesday.

Raymond Joseph Carter, 38, was denied bond at a Montgomery County General District Court hearing during which a prosecutor said Carter told police that he brought out a Japanese katana-style blade because he was upset by what he thought was the drug use of his younger brother and his brother’s best friend, 22-year-old Ethan Reid.

Carter “said he lost his temper” during the Friday incident and unsheathed the sword “just so they’d know I meant business,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Rachel Shrader said.

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Shrader said that police found “drug evidence in plain view in multiple rooms” at the residence in the 1300 block of Orchard Street. She said that Carter told officers that it angered him to come home from work and find needles that he thought his brother and Reid had been using.

Carter told police that after getting home, he drank a beer and smoked a bowl of marijuana but said that he was not impaired, Shrader said.

Defense attorney Courtney Roberts of Blacksburg said that when Carter got home from work and found his brother and Reid, whom he’d known for years, “his response maybe wasn’t the most rational.”

But she asked Judge Randal Duncan to focus on what Carter did afterward in moving to immediately call 911, surrendering to authorities as directed by an emergency dispatcher, and answering questions from investigators.

Granting Carter a bond would allow him to continue working and gathering money for an eventual restitution payment to the victim, Roberts said.

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Mike Gangloff
Mike Gangloff covers crime, breaking news and courts in the New River Valley. He can be reached at mike.gangloff@roanoke.com or (540) 381-1669.