Courts

Editor’s Note: This information is taken from open court records and is a matter of public record. 
The listings are complete. The newspaper, as a matter of fairness, will not honor requests to omit any listing. 
For information on this column or questions, call 236-5178, ext. 213.

District Court

These sentences were recorded in November, 2010, in the Galax General District Court Office, Galax. Sentences may be appealed:

Editor’s Note: This information is taken from open court records and is a matter of public record. The listings are complete. The newspaper, as a matter of fairness, will not honor requests to omit any listing.  
For information on this column or questions, 236-5178, ext. 213.

Land Transfers

These land transfers were recorded Jan. 6-Feb. 2 in the office of Carolyn H. Honeycutt, clerk of the Carroll County Circuit Court, Hillsville:
John W. Cox to Debra Sue Edwards. Two tracts in the Pine Creek District. $35,000.

Editor’s Note: This information is taken from open court records and is a matter of public record. The listings are complete. The newspaper, as a matter of fairness, will not honor requests to omit any listing.  
For information on this column or questions, 236-5178, ext. 213.

Land Transfers

These land transfers were recorded Jan. 5-31 in the office of Susan M. Herrington, clerk of the Grayson County Circuit Court, Independence:

RICHMOND — Virginia law enforcement officials have a new tool available to help solve serious crimes: family DNA checks.
Such searches involve comparing crime scene DNA against a genetic database for partial matches that can be used to narrow the search for a suspect to a specific family if a member of the gene pool is already in the testing database.
Cross-referencing DNA that way gives forensic scientists another means to check evidence from certain violent offenses against the more than 331,000 profiles in the database.