Canosa shooting heads to grand jury

A juvenile and domestic relations court judge has ruled that there is probable cause in the case of a Madison County woman who has been charged in the 2009 shooting death of her estranged husband.
In a late evening session of court Monday, Orange County Judge Frank W. Somerville ruled that first degree murder and weapons charges against Brenda Canosa, 49, would be certified to a grand jury. The charges stem from the Dec. 11, 2009 shooting of Robert Canosa, an Orange County Sheriff's Office Investigator who was living apart from his wife at the time of the incident. Bob Canosa died at the hospital nine days after sustaining multiple gunshot injuries.
At Monday's hearing, Somerville considered testimony from a number of witnesses who said Robert Canosa had revealed his wife had shot him after calling him in the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 11, 2009, and luring him outside the Unionville house in which he was staying during the couple's separation.
Orange County Sheriff's Office Communications Officer Carolyn Heath testified that she received a call for help on the sheriff's office main telephone line from Robert Canosa shortly after 6 a.m. on Dec. 11, 2009. According to Heath, Robert Canosa said he had been shot, and that it was his wife who had pulled the trigger. The first sheriff's deputy to arrive on the scene, Seth Boyd, testified too that Robert Canosa, bleeding profusely from gunshot wounds to the shoulder and abdomen, identified Brenda Canosa as the person who had shot him.
"I asked him who shot him," Boyd said. Canosa's reply, he added was, "The -----. She shot me in the back." Boyd said he asked Canosa to clarify, and the wounded man answered "my wife."
Orange County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Murphy remembered questioning Canosa in the back of the ambulance while waiting to transfer to a helicopter.
"I said, 'Bob, tell me who did this to you,' " Murphy testified. According to Murphy's testimony, Canosa clearly identified his estranged wife as the assailant.
Virginia State Police Special Agents testified that after executing search warrants at the Rochelle home where Brenda Canosa lived with the couple's two grown children, they collected positive results from gunshot residue tests of both of Brenda Canosa's hands. Additional evidence, including crime scene photos and cell phone records, was gathered at the scene and entered into the chain of custody, according to testimony.
But the victim's words alone were sufficient to convince Judge Somerville that there was probable cause.
"His statements alone…are enough to find probable cause on this charge," Somerville said. "The court has heard enough evidence to find that there is evidence of an actual murder."
A grand jury will hear evidence in the case March 22. Brenda Canosa is being held without bond at the Central Virginia Regional Jail.