by Kate Shunney
A special grand jury of the April term of Morgan County Circuit Court has indicted Andrew McCauley Jr. on another felony charge after hearing a single case on June 17.
McCauley is awaiting trial on charges that he murdered Riley Crossman, 15, of Berkeley Springs in May of 2019, and disposed of her body on a wooded hillside in Berkeley County.
During this month’s special meeting of the grand jury, McCauley was further indicted on the felony charge of death of a child by a custodian by child abuse.
Indictment documents state that McCauley has been accused of inflicting upon Crossman “a child under his care, substantial physical pain, illness or any impairment condition thereby causing the death” of the teen.
McCauley was the boyfriend of Crossman’s mother at the time of the teen’s death.
Grand jurors indicted McCauley on that new felony, and for murder and concealment of a deceased human body.
This is a “superseding indictment,” said Morgan County Prosecuting Attorney Dan James. That means this recent indictment takes the place of a previous indictment.
McCauley has been held without bond in the Eastern Regional Jail since his arrest on May 16, 2019 on charges of murdering Crossman.
Following his arrest, he was indicted in January 2020 by a Morgan County grand jury for the felony charges of murder and concealment of a deceased human body.
McCauley’s trial on the murder and concealment charges has been rescheduled multiple times. Most recently, court officials delayed the trial set to begin on April 26 just days before opening arguments because McCauley had been exposed to someone in jail who had tested positive for COVID-19. McCauley’s legal team objected to him appearing for the trial in any way except in person.
That murder trial is set to begin on September 27 in Morgan County. Jury selection for that trial is scheduled locally on September 17. Court officials and legal teams have agreed that if a Morgan County jury can’t be seated for the trial, they will select jurors from Jefferson County and bring them to the Morgan County courthouse to hear the trial.