Sanchez Pleads Guilty In Johnny Strand Murder

Gee- Improper documentation.  All this time he's been in this country illegally and no one botherd to check!

Fernando Carillo Sanchez



Fernando Carillo Sanchez, 24 of Accomack pleaded guilty to the murder of Johnny Strand in Accomack County Circuit Court Thursday morning. Strand, the popular manager of Pizza Hut in Onley was found dead by relatives on the morning of May 1, in his bedroom at his mobile home on Pine Ridge Drive near Melfa, when they went to check on him when he didn't show up for work that day.


The relative Gladys Church found his trailer locked and went to the Sheriff's Department to report Strand as missing. Because he had only been missing a few hours the Sheriff's Department asked Church to check the trailer. Church and her son went to the trailer, used a credit card to gain entry and discovered Strand's body.

Medical examiners determined that a baseball bat found at the scene was the murder weapon and that the perpetrator delivered 8 blows to the back of Strand's head, which Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Agar said was conclusive evidence that the murder was not in self defense.

Johnny Strand

Agar stated in is summary Sanchez then located the keys of Strand's Ford Expedition, turned all of the lights off and locked the door on the way out, indicating that the murder was premeditated.

On May 4, the Expedition was spotted at the Shore Stop in Accomac. The Sheriff's Department quickly found it near a trailer at Dreamland Homes. After interview all of the individuals riding in the car it was determined that Sanchez was the driver and had obtained the vehicle a few days prior.

Sanchez pled guilty to first degree murder. Circuit Court Judge John C. Morrison Jr. accepted the plea and the plea agreement which called for 35 years in the State Penitentary with 15 years suspended pending payment of court costs by Sanchez and good behavior for the 35 year term. Sanchez's presence in the country without proper documentation is considered a violation of good behavior.

Source; shoredailynews.com

Pizza Hut Manager Trial To Begin Today

Johnny Strand



ACCOMAC -- The trial of the man charged with the May 2010 murder of popular restaurant manager Johnny Strand will get under way Thursday morning in Accomac.

Fernando Carrillo Sanchez, 24, of Accomac, is charged with second-degree murder. He elected to have the case heard in a bench trial -- meaning a circuit judge will decide the case -- rather than by a jury.

Strand, 49, a well-known community figure, was for years the manager of the Onley Pizza Hut, after having started out as a dishwasher when the restaurant opened in the early 1990s. The restaurant was dedicated in his name in a ceremony held three months after his death.

Testimony at a preliminary hearing in General District court last summer revealed that a relative of Strand found him dead in his Pine Ridge Drive home in Melfa on May 1 when she went to check on him after he failed to pick up her son from his night job at Perdue.

Gladys Church said she and her son drove to Strand's home about 2 a.m. and saw that no lights were on and his SUV was not there.

They went there again in the afternoon after Strand did not answer his phone despite her repeated calls.

Church testified that after using a credit card to gain entrance through the locked door she found Strand lying naked, face-down and covered with blood in his bed.

An investigator for the Accomack County Sheriff's Office testified that Strand had trauma to his head from multiple blows and said there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle at the home.

Fernando Carrillo Sanchez

A blue Little League baseball bat covered in blood was found under the bed where Strand lay.

An autopsy report concluded that Strand died from blunt force trauma to the head and said his body had eight lacerations to the sides and back of the head and two lacerations on his left eyebrow.

Carillo Sanchez, a Guatemalan native who later told officials he never attended school and was sick as a child, was arrested several days after Strand's body was discovered and after the victim's missing vehicle was found in the Dreamland mobile home park on U.S. Route 13 in Accomac where the accused lived.

Carillo Sanchez confessed after being questioned by an investigator with the help of an interpreter.

He said he was forced into sex with Strand, according to Investigator Anthony Bright's testimony at the preliminary hearing.

The accused also claimed Strand hit him with the baseball bat, but Bright said he saw no wounds or bruising on Carillo Sanchez' body.

Commonwealth's Attorney Gary Agar said during a hearing this summer Carillo Sanchez has been evaluated and was "slower than average, but found competent to stand trial."

Source;  http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20110914/ESN01/109140341/Trial-to-begin-in-Johnny-Strand-slaying?odyssey=mod  

 
REST IN PEACE, JOHNNY STRAND.

Court Testimony Shows Strands Family Found His Slain Body

ACCOMACK — Murder charges against a man accused of killing Johnny Strand, a popular local restaurant manager, were certified to a grand jury at a preliminary hearing in General District court here.

Fernando Carrillo Sanchez, a 23-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, stands charged with killing Strand, 49, the manager of the Onley Pizza Hut.

Commonwealth’s attorney Gary Agar presented evidence that showed that the black Ford Expedition that was stolen from Strand’s Melfa home was found several days later near the residence of the accused man.

He said also that Carrillo Sanchez made and signed a confession the night he was picked up by the police and that there was a previous unspecified relationship between the two men. Investigators found Strand’s telephone number on the defendant’s cell phone.

Gladys Church, a relative of Strand’s, answered Agar’s questions about May 1, the day she found Strand lying naked, face-down and covered with blood in his bed at his Melfa home.

Church said she became concerned about Strand when he failed to pick her son up from his late- night job at Perdue. She picked up her son herself and drove to Strand’s house.

“We went there at about 2 a.m.,” she said. There were no lights on and his SUV was not there.

“The next morning, we kept calling and calling and he didn’t pick up,” Church said, adding she was nervous because Strand never missed work.

Church told the court she made repeated calls to Strand’s telephone and went to talk to some of his friends to ask if they knew where he was. No one did, she said.
At about 1 p.m., Church said she went to the police.

“I told them my Uncle Johnny was not answering his phone.” Church and her son drove to Strand’s home again.

The door was locked and his vehicle was not there. She said she and her son used a credit card to gain entrance to the trailer.

She began to sob almost uncontrollably as she described the horrific scene.

“We walked in. I got halfway down the hall.” Her son, ahead of her screamed, “‘Oh, no, Don’t come in here.’ I said, ‘I am coming in.’”

“He was lying on his stomach, face to the wall,” she said. “I could see blood splattered up the headboard, up the wall and on the floor.”

“I was screaming. We went back outside. I said, ‘Somebody killed him. Why, why.’”

Beverly Jacks, a volunteer emergency technician with the Melfa Fire and Rescue, was the next to arrive on the scene.

Jacks described the scene just as it had been told by Church. She said it looked like Strand had been dead for some time.

Tom Hedge, an investigator for the sheriff’s department at the time, described the murder scene. He said Strand had trauma to his head from multiple blows.

There were no signs of forced entry or a struggle, he said.

He said the wounds were consistent with the victim being killed where he lay, describing him as “unaware.” He found a blue Little League baseball bat covered in blood under the bed where Strand lay.

Strand’s vehicle was not located until four days later. The sheriff’s department received a tip that it was in Dreamland One mobile home park. They found the vehicle and asked neighbors to which trailer it belonged.

A person was seen running to that trailer, he said, and then refused to answer the door when police knocked. Finally three men came out and all were taken into custody.

Investigator Anthony Bright, with the help of an interpreter, questioned the suspect for several hours. He described Carrillo Sanchez as “very calm.”

“He began to cry and then made a confession,” Bright said. The accused man said he was forced into sex with Strand, Bright said. He claimed that Strand hit him with the baseball bat. Bright said he saw no wounds or bruising on the defendant’s body.

Carrillo Sanchez was defended by attorney Garrett Dunham.

www.delmarvanow.com

Johnny Strand- Slain Manager of Pizza Hut To Be Honored

Slain Pizza Hut Manager Johnny Strand will be memorialized this

Saturday, July 17 at 11:00 AM

at his former restaurant in Onley, Va.



The public is invited to the event.


A plaque honoring Strand will be mounted in the dining room in the Onley Pizza Hut. Plans for a scholarship fund in honor of Strand are currently being talked over and will be announced soon.

Strand was found murdered at his Melfa residents on May 1st after he did not report to work. Fernando Carrillo Sanchez, 23 of Accomac, was arrested on May 5th in connection with Strands death and charged with 2nd degree murder. Sanchezs preliminary hearing will be at 11:00 AM on August 6th in Accomack's General District Court.

Mr. Johnny Strand ~ An Inspiration To Everyone

Today is the burial for Mr. Johnny Strand and I am sure those that knew him will be there to say their final goodbyes. I found the posting below in the Eastern Shore News in the Viewpoint section on Wednesday and I have thought about what I read many times since then. It is lengthy and I started to just post half but it's the whole story that makes this man. If you read nothing else for the rest of today please take time to read this. This man had all the qualifications of an angel.

In 36 years of writing stories on local people for this newspaper, no one was ever as grateful or appreciative as Johnny Strand, the popular Pizza Hut manager who was slain last weekend at his Melfa home.

I have received scores of notes and letters from people who I have profiled during my time here, but Johnny's thank you was the most memorable.

Not long after I wrote a profile on Johnny for the "Virginia's Eastern Shore" special section in 2007 -- ironically, that issue appears in today's paper -- Johnny came into the News office in Accomac and called a few employees he knew up front in the lobby, including me.

He then read a hand-written message he had penned on a thank you card. It read:

You wrote articles over the years

To make one happy or shed tears.

It's true what I've heard, you're one of a kind,

You gave Johnny Strand a chance to speak his mind.

With my voice, I spoke of my strife,

with your pen you wrote of my life.

Together, you and I have touched so many,

A smile restored, a broken spirit replenished.

So I thank you so much, for not taking away

From the spirit of a man who had a lot to say.

Thank you Mr. Sterling,

and the rest of the Eastern Shore News family,

Sincerely,

Mr. Johnny Strand

Since that day Johnny thanked me again every time I saw him. Just two weeks ago he was thanking me for the article as if I had written it the previous week.

The truth is Johnny never stopped hearing about the article with the power of the Internet. The story was picked up by the Associated Press and turned up in newspapers and websites all over the country. Johnny said he heard from strangers who just wanted to say they were inspired by his story.

And what a story it was. I knew when I walked away from that interview three years ago, Johnny's story sounded like a movie script that producers would reject because people just wouldn't believe it. But Johnny was the real deal.

The writing had little, if anything, to do with the powerful message Johnny delivered in that interview. Johnny gave me far too much credit in that card that I treasure even more today than when he presented it.

In 1990, Strand was walking along U.S. Route 13 as the Pizza Hut was being built in the Chesapeake Square shopping center in Onley. A man hailed Strand and asked if he wanted to earn some extra money by unloading a truckload of construction materials being used to build the restaurant.

Strand, who had no car and was unemployed at the time, because it was January and he usually worked on area farms, gladly accepted the offer.

The Pizza Hut manager who was checking on the progress of the construction took notice of how Strand hustled back and forth as he was unloading the truck. He called Strand aside and asked him if he wanted a job when the restaurant opened in a few weeks.

So on the first day Pizza Hut opened Strand was a dishwasher.

Strand said in that interview his mission was to be the best dishwasher possible. "I took control of my area. I'm like that. I wanted those dishes to be so clean you could see your face in them."

Strand was soon promoted to assistant cook and then lead cook. When the manager saw how friendly Strand was with people, he made Strand a server. Strand then became a shift manager and eventually assistant manager of the restaurant.

Strand worked for five other managers, and in 2002 when the position was again vacant Strand was asked by Pizza Hut officials to be the manager. He turned them down -- twice, in fact.

Gil Liberty, the district manager for Pizza Hut, came to Strand for a third time. Liberty was present at that 2007 interview because he wanted to impress upon the reporter just how he felt about Strand.

Liberty told Stand, "You are here 55 hours a week anyway. Everyone thinks you are the manager. Why don't you take this position and earn the benefits and the extra money that comes with it?"

Strand explained he was very busy with his church and was a member of a traveling gospel choir at Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church in Bayside, near Onancock.

Liberty promised Strand the job would not interfere with attending church. "I say that because I know you are the right person for the job," Liberty told Strand.

Liberty said at that 2007 interview, "Johnny is the face of Pizza Hut on the Eastern Shore. When you say Pizza Hut around here you think of Johnny Strand. When you say Johnny Strand, you think of Pizza Hut. He has such great people skills, both with the public and the employees. Everyone loves to work for him."

Strand was recognized by the community and Pizza Hut for his contributions. He worked with schools, youth groups, churches, the Foodbank, the DARE program and numerous other groups to help raise funds or provide pizzas as incentives for achievement. It seemed everyone knew Strand and his willingness to help others.

The walls of the restaurant are plastered with drawings from local students and photographs of athletes from every school on the Shore.

Many of his employees are area students, and he often sat down with them and asked about their grades. He told them he was far from a perfect student in high school, but mistakes today can have more impact than when he was at Onancock High School in the 1970s.

"I want to find the good in everyone," said Strand. "I go to the schools and tell students that if they work hard and do a good job, their self-esteem will rise and good things will happen to them," said Strand, who had at the time missed only one day of work in 17 years. He took a day off to go watch Nandua High School play for a state basketball title.

Strand might not have been perfect in high school, but Pizza Hut received rare perfect scores from the Health Department. Pizza Hut's reviews were usually rated "excelling."

Strand's love in high school was music. He was taught by his cousin, Jesse Poulson, also an active member of his church.

He was good enough that he was supposed to go to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and be a member of the college choir. But his mother had a leg amputated due to complications from diabetes two months before he was to graduate from high school in 1978. His father died one month later. As the youngest of 10 children and the only one still at home, it was up to Johnny to care for his mother at their home near White Rabbit.

"I missed a chance to go to college, but I wouldn't change a thing," said Strand, who wiped away a tear at that interview when talking about his mother.

Although he never married, Johnny said he had more than 50 nieces and nephews he followed closely.

His funeral will surely be attended many of the people he touched through the years. His tragic loss from a senseless crime will be felt throughout the community.

But although his life was cut short, the incomparable Johnny Strand will continue to inspire others to be their best, as he always tried to be.

www.easternshorenews.com

Community Event Saturday To Honor Johnny Strand

WACHAPREAGUE — The life of Johnny Strand, the charismatic Onley Pizza Hut manager who was slain May 1, will be celebrated at an outdoors community event at 5 p.m. today at Wachapreague Park.

It will follow Strand’s funeral, which is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Macedonia A.M.E. Church in Accomack.

“Johnny blessed a lot of people,” said the Rev. Robert Garris Jr., who is organizing the event. “This is what needs to be done.”

Everyone is invited.

Strand, 49, who had worked for Pizza Hut since it opened, was found dead in his Melfa home. Police this week arrested an Accomac man on a murder charge in connection with his death.

The celebration of Strand’s life will feature gospel music with intermittent opportunities for attendees to take a microphone and say a few words on how Strand touched their lives.

There also will be hot dogs, hamburgers and Pizza Hut pizza available. Garris is going to local businesses this week to solicit donations of food and beverages.

There also will be a massive reprint of the photograph that Jay Diem, the News’ photographer, took of Strand in 2007 as the manager stood in front of Pizza Hut.

Garris has asked the Parksley Sign Co. to enlarge the photograph “life-sized” so that attendees can bring a camera and have their photo taken with it.

Donations also will be collected for the Johnny Keith Strand Memorial Scholarship, which is being organized by longtime friend Jesse Poulson.

Like many people, Garris, who is pastor at Mt. Nebo Baptist Church in Onancock, has a personal story about how Strand influenced his life.

The event will be a tribute to Strand. Garris credited Accomack County Parks and Recreation Director Bill Allen with coordinating the use of Wachapreague Park for the event.

www.delmarvanow.com

SUSPECT CHARGED IN MURDER

Here's the photo of the idiot and worthless piece of crap that took the life of a wonderful man in Accomack County earlier this week. Good work Accomack County Sheriff's Department, Virginia State Police and VA. Marine Resources Commission!

ACCOMAC, Va.- An 23-year-old man is behind bars for the murder of an Accomack County man.

The Accomack County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday announced that 23-year-old Fernando Carrillo Sanchez of Accomac, has been charged with the second-degree murder of 49-year-old Johnny Strand, whose body was found inside his Melfa home on Saturday afternoon.

Strand, who was the manager of the Pizza Hut in Onley, was last seen by his colleagues closing up the restaurant the night before. His vehicle, a Ford Expedition, was missing from his home when police arrived on the scene.

During the homicide investigation, the Sheriff's Office traced Strand's vehicle to the Dreamland mobile home park on Route 13 in Accomack County. A late Tuesday night search of the mobile home park by investigators, deputies, and Virginia State Police troopers uncovered Strand's vehicle at a home there. Police say the home's occupants cooperated with authorities in bring the investigation to a close.

Sanchez is being held in the Accomack County Jail with bond denied. Police have not yet released how Strand was murdered or the motive for the crime.

http://www.wboc.com/

R.I.P. Johnny Strand

Pizza Hut Manager Suffered Multiple Injuries

ONLEY -- Police said a slain Pizza Hut manager had suffered multiple injuries when his body was found by authorities.

The manager's SUV also was stolen from his home, Accomack Sheriff Larry Giddens said.

Johnny Keith Strand, 49, of Melfa, a longtime manager of the restaurant, had been reported missing earlier Saturday.

The Accomack County Sheriff's Office found him at 2:28 p.m. at his Pine Ridge Drive residence near Melfa.

Tributes continue for Strand, known as a likable and gentlemanly Shore native who became synonymous with the restaurant.

"His bright eyes and quick smile never left him. He shared his talents and his time to make the Shore and all who visited a brighter place," said Carla Savage-Wells of Onley, a Nandua High School teacher who had known Strand since elementary school.

Pizza Hut District Manager Gil Liberty described Strand as "the kindest man that I've ever met and probably will ever meet."

Strand's death is being investigated as a homicide. Units and personnel from the Melfa Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company responded to the scene.

The victim's vehicle, a black 1998 Ford Expedition, also has been reported missing and has been entered into computer databases as a stolen vehicle. Its Virginia license number is ZC8 296.

A Pizza Hut assistant manager said she last saw Strand at 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 757-787-1131 or 757-824-5666.

www.delmarvanow.com