POWHATAN, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – A Powhatan County grand jury has indicted an inmate at the State Farm Correctional Center in that county on two felony murder solicitation counts in a plot to kill two corrections officers. Virginia Dept of Corrections officials say 49-year old Richard Joseph Bottoms filed a later-unfounded rape claim against a VADOC employee in June 2023 in that facility, then continually harassed that employee following that claim. A Henrico County Court judge issued a protective order during the harassment prohibiting Bottoms from contacting that person. In November 2023, Bottoms reportedly violated that order through a third-party contact which prompted the VADOC Victim Services Unit to open an Investigaton that resulted in Bottoms and two other inmates receiving institutional infractions.

Following those institutional penalties, VADOC alleges Bottoms solicited another inmate to murder both the State Farm employee and the Victim Services investigator in return for money. An investigation turned up the alleged solicitation that led to the June 5 indictments on the murder solicitation counts, plus found counts of violating a protective order. None of the corrections employees were harmed. A trial date has not been set.