Mark Weiner, the former Food Lion manager who was convicted of abduction with intent to defile two years ago, will be in court for sentencing May 6. Since his last court appearance December 17, when his attorneys filed a motion to set aside the verdict with sworn affidavits of two witnesses who contradict the alleged victim’s story, a third witness has come forward to dispute her account. A UVA doctor has also written that Weiner needs treatment for a tumor in his bladder that is in danger of malignancy.
Weiner has been in jail since December 2012, when he was charged with abducting Chelsea Steiniger after rendering her unconscious with a mysterious chemical and taking her to an abandoned house at 2184 Richmond Rd., from which she escaped. During the trial, Steiniger testified she’d never been in the house before. Now a third witness has said he was there when she was at least two times before the alleged December 12, 2012, abduction.
The prosecution has filed an affidavit from Albemarle police officer Greg Anastopoulos in which he said he was unable to corroborate one of the witnesses’ accounts that Steiniger was at the Richmond Road house in February 2012.
