Man sentenced to life in murder of Wytheville native

A 40-year-old Pulaski man was sentenced to life in prison earlier this week for the murder of a former Wytheville resident. Tony Wayne Covey had entered a no contest plea to the first-degree murder of his girlfriend, 42-year-old Shelby Newberry Cline, at a September 2009 hearing in Pulaski County Circuit Court and was sentenced last Tuesday, Feb. 23.
Covey was charged with slitting the throat of Cline while she was in bed on the morning of Feb. 21, 2009, less than 24 hours after they moved from Wythe County to a house in Pulaski. He is believed to have used a small pocketknife that was later found in his shirt pocket, according to police.
According to reports, Covey also had extensive Wythe County ties. He is the son of Jerry Covey of Draper, who was injured in the unrelated killing of his son-in-law, Joseph Foster Bane, which occurred during a triple shooting on Dyer Road in December 2008.
The suspect in that case, Douglas Albert Jaccard, was convicted in that case last month.
Cline was married to Ronnie Newberry and living in Wytheville in 2001 when the couple’s 16-year-old son, Jordan, fatally stabbed his dad with a steak knife. Cline was an eyewitness to the murder and also was cut on the hand as she tried to stop the attack on her husband.
Jordan Newberry was convicted of second-degree murder in the case. He is incarcerated at Pocahontas State Corrections Center with a projected release date of September 2015, according to Virginia Department of Corrections records.
In August 2002, Cline married Bobby Gordon Cline of Crockett. The couple separated in March 2008 with their divorce finalized on Feb. 10, 2009, according to court records.
Acquaintances said Shelby Cline grew up in the Speedwell area and had worked as a nurse at what is now Carrington Place at Wytheville. They also reported she lived briefly in Bland County and worked at a nursing home in Princeton, W.Va.
Before her nursing career, Cline worked as a waitress at Skeeter’s E.N. Umberger Store in Wytheville.
She has been described as kind and friendly.
--Staff report