David Sharp, 36, is being charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of the Rev. Arthur Hensley, 76.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An Alum Creek man accused of shoving an elderly pastor to his death during a September fight at a Charleston hospital sobbed as Charleston police led him to an unmarked car.
David Allen Sharp, 36, of Childress Road, was charged Monday evening with voluntary manslaughter for the Sept. 10 incident that left the Rev. Arthur Hensley, 76, of Boone County, in a coma for more than a month. Hensley died Friday.
“I was attacked first and the only thing I did was try to shove him away from me and an accident happened and I’m so sorry for his family,” Sharp said as detectives Eddie Whitehead and Canden Sharp walked him Monday evening to a waiting police car.
Hensley, who was the pastor at Woodville First Baptist Church in Lincoln County, was going into Charleston Area Medical Center’s Memorial Hospital for a doctor’s appointment the morning of Sept. 10 when he saw Sharp engaged in an “over the top” display of affection with a woman, later identified as Sharp’s wife, said Lt. Steve Cooper, Charleston chief of detectives.
Sharp told detectives he and his wife were celebrating after finding out a spot on his body wasn’t cancerous, said Canden Sharp, who is of no relation to David Sharp.
The pastor apparently was offended by the couple’s reported hugging and kissing and told them, “You need to get a room,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha Magistrate Court.