A former student of Washington and Lee University is facing a felony charge following the spray painting of a university-owned building and several cars.
Sheamus Craugh, 20, was charged Tuesday with one count of vandalism. The charge follows a March 3 incident in which the Sustainability House on Nelson Street, which houses students, and several cars in the area were spray painted with graffiti. Craugh had been a sophomore at W&L at the time of the incident but is no longer enrolled. In a March 3 email to the university community, W&L’s dean of students said the graffiti included “anti-gay sentiments directed at an individual student.”
Detective Robert Smith of the Lexington Police Department said the charges are not hate crime-related because Virginia law does not include sexual orientation as a protected category, according to The Roanoke Times.