Shenandoah Man Indicted In Stabbing At Fair

HARRISONBURG — A Rockingham County grand jury indicted a Shenandoah man accused of stabbing another man outside the Rockingham County Fair in August.

 

On Monday, grand jurors returned an indictment against Frank Comer Sr., 48, on one felony count of malicious wounding.

 

He was arrested around 11:30 p.m. Aug. 17 as he drove away from the scene of the incident, a parking lot outside the fairgrounds’ grandstands where cars from the fair’s demolition derby were parked. The derby was held earlier that night.

 

The stabbing victim, Brian Purdham, 32, also of Shenandoah, was taken to Rockingham Memorial Hospital and then flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where he was treated for serious injuries.

 

Rockingham County sheriff’s deputies say Comer stabbed Purdham in the midsection with a knife.

 

Investigators say they received conflicting reports about the circumstances that led to the stabbing.

 

Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson, speaking the day after the stabbing, said the two men knew each other and argued after the fair’s demolition derby, which both had attended but did not participate in. The nature of the argument was unclear, Hutcheson said then.

 

During a hearing in Rockingham County Circuit Court, Judge James Lane scheduled Comer to appear in court on Dec. 17. Lane will either schedule a trial or a plea hearing at that time.

 

Comer remains held without bond in Rockingham County Jail.

 

Contact Pete DeLea at 574-6278 or pdelea@dnronline.com