Judge: There is evidence of actual murder

ORANGE — A juvenile and domestic relations court judge certified the murder case of an Orange County sheriff’s investigator to the grand jury Monday night, listening to testimony from eight members of local and state law enforcement regarding the Dec. 11 shooting of Unionville resident Bob Canosa.

Canosa’s estranged wife, Madison County resident and special education teacher Brenda Canosa, 49, faces charges of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Mr. Canosa, a career law enforcement professional who also worked as an investigator under former Culpeper County Sheriff Lee Hart, died Dec. 20 at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville from multiple gunshot wounds. He was 55.

The Canosas separated last spring amid allegations that he had an affair with a female deputy.

Mr. Canosa was living in a building on a 50-acre farm owned by Tim Murphy, chief deputy at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, at the time of the shooting.

“There is evidence of an actual murder,” said Orange County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Frank W. Somerville at the close of the the 2½-hour preliminary hearing Monday night, saying the court would continue to hold Mrs. Canosa without bail in the Central Virginia Regional Jail, a couple of miles from the courthouse on U.S. 15.

OCSO Deputy Seth Boyd was the first law enforcement officer to respond to the scene of the crime after Bob Canosa called the sheriff’s office at 6:08 a.m. Dec. 11 to say he had been shot and needed help. Boyd testified Monday that he kicked open the locked door to Mr. Canosa’s residence to find him lying on his back in bed, bleeding profusely from numerous gunshot wounds to his shoulder, abdomen, throat, chest and back.

“(His) clothing was soaked in blood,” Boyd said as Orange County Commonwealth’s Attorney Diana Wheeler entered into evidence several photos of Mr. Canosa at the crime scene.

“I asked him who shot him, and his wording was, ‘The bitch – she shot me in the back.’ I asked him, ‘Who shot you?’ and he said, ‘My wife.’”

Exiting an open door in the building where Mr. Canosa lived, Boyd testified, he observed a revolver on the ground that “appeared to have blood on it everywhere. It looked like someone had grabbed it,” he said, adding that a pickup truck in the driveway and Mr. Canosa’s patrol car were also spattered with blood.

At a bond hearing Feb. 22, Wheeler, in presenting her evidence, said Mrs. Canosa emptied a nine-shot revolver, striking her husband five times. The building Mr. Canosa was living in was part of a canine training facility run by Murphy.

Caroline Heath, communications officer with the OCSO, testified that she took the phone call from Canosa on the morning of the shooting; she too asked him who shot him, and Mr. Canosa responded that his wife had, Heath said.

Murphy, in his testimony, said Mr. Canosa had lived on the farm since April in a converted bedroom located inside a 40-by-80-foot building. Phone records presented by the commonwealth last week showed that Mrs. Canosa called Mr. Canosa on his cell phone on the morning of the pre-dawn shooting.

“Bob was lying on his bed on his back, and he was bloody,” Murphy said in court Monday. “There was a hole in his chest. Bob was in a great deal of pain.”

Murphy said he was in the back of the ambulance with Mr. Canosa as he was transported to Unionville Elementary School for helicopter transport to the University of Virginia Medical Center. Upon arrival at the school, Murphy said, an emergency worker advised, “I better talk to him quick” because, “he might not make it.”

“I said, ‘Bob, you’re dying. Tell me who did this to you.’ He said, ‘Brenda,’” Murphy said, adding that he questioned Mr. Canosa three times similarly to be sure of his response.

Madison County Sheriff’s Deputy Donald Dillon testified that he was dispatched to Mrs. Canosa’s home in Rochelle on the morning of Dec. 11 around 6:20 a.m. He said a vehicle entered her driveway 10 to 12 minutes after he arrived; Dillon said he observed the vehicle enter the driveway from a nearby staging area.

At 7:10 a.m., Dillon said, he approached the house, as instructed, and observed two vehicles in the driveway, including a tan Jeep, which he said was warm around the front grill, indicating it had recently been driven. Dillon said he observed “a red substance that appeared to be blood” on the steering wheel and driver’s seat.

Virginia State Police Special Agent Gary Pence testified that later on Dec. 11 – at 6:20 p.m. – he took part in the execution of a search warrant of Mrs. Canosa’s home and her Jeep, collecting DNA evidence and conducting a gunshot residue test of her hands. Earlier that morning, before obtaining the search warrant, Pence said he interacted with Mrs. Canosa as she sat in the family room.

“She was very polite, neatly dressed,” he said. “She didn’t appear to be upset.”

Pence said Mrs. Canosa initially gave her consent to authorities to search her home and vehicle.

Orange County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Moore, in his closing remarks, said the test later showed that Mrs. Canosa had gunshot residue on her hands the morning of Dec. 11.

In defense of Mrs. Canosa, Charlottesville attorney Dana Slater and Alexandria attorney Chris Leibig questioned the subsequent handling of the evidence in the case, the administration of the gunshot residue test, the immediate dissemination of information to local authorities following the shooting and the orientation of the crime scene.

Virginia State Police Special Agent Mike Jones also testified under cross examination that Mr. Canosa told him – in the hospital on Dec. 16 – that he told his 22-year-old daughter, Caitlin, that her mother did not shoot him.

“(Mr. Canosa) told me he said that to his daughter so his daughter could have a mother and a father,” Jones said, adding, “He told me his wife Brenda had shot him.”

The case goes to the grand jury March 22 at 9:30 a.m.