Credit Card Fraud Suspect Has Ties to Robbery Where Bruton Classmate Died

By WYDaily Staff Tuesday, October 19, 2010

York County investigators have charged a 20-year-old county man with theft and credit card offenses after receiving a tip from a Crime Line caller.

Investigators released photographs taken from a surveillance camera at the Walmart on Rochambeau Drive in Upper York. The photos depicted a suspect using a credit card that had been stolen from an unlocked vehicle parked in the 300 block of Skimino Landing Road between 6 and 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 9. Police said the card had been used at several Williamsburg-area locations before it was discovered stolen and deactivated.

A Crime Line caller identified the suspect as John William Chaffin, whose last known address was in the 100 block of Wichita Lane in York County.

Chaffin was subsequently arrested and charged with five counts of grand larceny, one count of larceny of a credit card and one count of credit card fraud.

According to a police statement, Chaffin's arrest has "cleared several cases and the investigation is ongoing." He is being held at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail, with a Dec. 6 court date scheduled.

Chaffin was one of five 18 year-olds who were either current or former Bruton High students in fall of 2008 charged in connection with an Oct. 14 armed robbery in New Kent County. The robbery went bad, ending with Bruton student Christopher Greene dead.

Police believe Greene and three others – not including Chaffin – went to a house on Pocahontas Trail intending to commit an armed robbery to get drugs. Greene was reportedly shot when he banged on the door and someone inside fired a shot that hit him.

John Steven Carter, the then-56-year-old tenant, apparently fled from the home. Greene was found dead beneath a tarp in the rear yard.

Why the teens may have targeted the rundown farmhouse was a mystery for two weeks, when police discovered the home contained a hidden room filled with marijuana plants with a street value of over $1 million.

Carter was arrested in March 2009 in Alabama, and extradited to Virginia earlier this year. He now faces multiple charges, ranging from manufacturing marijuana for others to concealment of a dead body.

Chaffin was charged originally with conspiracy to commit robbery, a felony, but that charge was later amended to petit larceny. Chaffin entered a guilty plea, and was sentenced to 12 months in jail with six months suspended. He violated probation this February, according to court records, and was sentenced to serve the remaining six months.