Man charged in 2023 stabbing in Charleston was found dead in jail, officials say

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) – A man accused of stabbing in Kanawha County in 2023 was found dead in his jail cell Wednesday, officials said.

Percy Woody, 38, was found unresponsive Wednesday evening by staff conducting routine checks at the South Central Regional Jail, a spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. Employees immediately tried to provide life-saving help.

“We sympathize with the friends and families of those who have experienced the loss of a loved one entrusted to our care,” the statement said.

Woody was being held while awaiting trial in connection with the stabbings of four people in and around a McDonald’s in Charleston in December 2023. He was charged with four counts of malicious wounding and one count of obstruction.

The incident wasn’t the first time Woody had been accused of malicious wounding.

In January 2018, Woody was accused of stabbing a man multiple times in the back and torso, according to court records. He was then accused of injuring a man with a box cutter in August 2019.

The next month, Woody pleaded guilty to violating his probation over the 2018 incident. He was sentenced in autumn 2020 to a prison sentence of up to three years, taking into account the time served.

Less than two months after his release from that sentence, Woody was accused of using a box cutter to injure two employees and a customer at a McDonald’s in the 6000 block of MacCorkle Avenue in 2023. Police said Woody was employed and working at the restaurant at the time of the incident.

Woody is also accused of stabbing a random passerby along Roosevelt Avenue before injuring himself before being taken into custody.

Police said at the time that all victims had non-life-threatening injuries.

Due to an investigation by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Criminal Investigation Division and the West Virginia State Police, no further information regarding Woody’s death has been released, the statement said.