A Montgomery County judge has ruled that Michael Morva’s upcoming trial will be moved out of the New River Valley. In a rare move, Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs on Friday granted a change-of-venue motion without first attempting to seat a jury in Montgomery County. “After much, much consideration,“ Grubbs said in Montgomery County Circuit Court, “I think it is impossible to sever this case from that of William Morva.“

A Dinwiddie County jury seemed to have little doubt yesterday about the guilt of a mother accused of drugging and stabbing to death her young son in the family’s bathtub in 2006. After a two-day trial that included testimony from 20 witnesses, the jurors deliberated a little more than an hour before convicting Julie E. Futrell of first-degree murder in the Thanksgiving slaying of 6-year-old Shawn A. Futrell.

CHESAPEAKE—A trial is scheduled to begin tomorrow for a man accused of killing one Mormon missionary and wounding another in 2006. James Boughton Jr. is charged with first-degree murder, malicious wounding, attempted malicious wounding and three firearms violations. Missionaries Morgan W. Young and Joshua Heidbrink were shot while knocking on doors in Chesapeake in January 2006.