CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Desmond Clark, the man accused of gunning down the 19-year-old mother of his child after she fled into a West Side Taco Bell on July 5, waived his preliminary hearing in Kanawha Magistrate Court on Tuesday.

Clark and his attorney, public defender Theresa Chisolm, signed the waiver on Monday, and Kanawha County Chief Magistrate Joe Shelton made it an official part of the case file on Tuesday.

Clark's case will now be transferred to circuit court, where prosecutors can ask a grand jury to indict him on first-degree murder charges. Clark is being held at South Central Regional Jail without bond.

It is not unusual for defendants facing felony charges to waive preliminary hearings in magistrate court. A preliminary hearing requires the state to produce enough evidence to justify continuing to hold a suspect in jail while charges are pending.

In exchange for Clark's waiver, Chisolm requested discovery from the prosecutor's office, including the police report, all witness statements, any statements made to police by Clark and surveillance video from the Taco Bell on Patrick Street.

Police maintain Clark abducted longtime girlfriend Na'lisha Gravely, 19, on July 5 and shot her while they were together in his car. After she escaped from his vehicle, he allegedly followed her into the restaurant, hopped the counter and shot her six times.

Also Tuesday, police returned a search warrant they served on the house where Clark was arrested following a brief manhunt.

Responding to a tip that Clark was hiding at 1204 Woodland Drive in Charleston, officers approached the two-story house at 12:15 a.m. July 6, Charleston Police Detective J.F. Taylor wrote in an affidavit attached to the warrant.

"As [an] officer knocked on the door, several individuals were seen from the outside windows running thru the house," Taylor wrote. After a few minutes, a woman answered the door.

As he approached the door, Taylor smelled marijuana, he wrote.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Desmond Clark, the man accused of gunning down the 19-year-old mother of his child after she fled into a West Side Taco Bell on July 5, waived his preliminary hearing in Kanawha Magistrate Court on Tuesday.

Clark and his attorney, public defender Theresa Chisolm, signed the waiver on Monday, and Kanawha County Chief Magistrate Joe Shelton made it an official part of the case file on Tuesday.

Clark's case will now be transferred to circuit court, where prosecutors can ask a grand jury to indict him on first-degree murder charges. Clark is being held at South Central Regional Jail without bond.

It is not unusual for defendants facing felony charges to waive preliminary hearings in magistrate court. A preliminary hearing requires the state to produce enough evidence to justify continuing to hold a suspect in jail while charges are pending.

In exchange for Clark's waiver, Chisolm requested discovery from the prosecutor's office, including the police report, all witness statements, any statements made to police by Clark and surveillance video from the Taco Bell on Patrick Street.

Police maintain Clark abducted longtime girlfriend Na'lisha Gravely, 19, on July 5 and shot her while they were together in his car. After she escaped from his vehicle, he allegedly followed her into the restaurant, hopped the counter and shot her six times.

Also Tuesday, police returned a search warrant they served on the house where Clark was arrested following a brief manhunt.

Responding to a tip that Clark was hiding at 1204 Woodland Drive in Charleston, officers approached the two-story house at 12:15 a.m. July 6, Charleston Police Detective J.F. Taylor wrote in an affidavit attached to the warrant.

"As [an] officer knocked on the door, several individuals were seen from the outside windows running thru the house," Taylor wrote. After a few minutes, a woman answered the door.

As he approached the door, Taylor smelled marijuana, he wrote.

According to Taylor, officers saw a man run out the back door, only to turn and run back into the house.

"While clearing the house, murder suspect Desmond Clark was found hiding in a closet that housed the furnace unit," the affidavit states.

Officers found a small bag of marijuana on the floor near a pool table, and more marijuana in a toilet, Taylor wrote.

A large amount of cash was visible in an upstairs bedroom, he said.

According to the returned search warrant, police found a 9 mm handgun underneath some cushions and a Diet Coke can with a false bottom in a bedroom, and a plastic bag with marijuana in a robe and digital scales in the bathroom.

In another bedroom, officers located a set of digital scales, a plate with tan chunks and a razor, and cash in all the drawers of a jewelry stand, the warrant states.

A third set of digital scales was found in the entertainment center in a different bedroom.

Clark pleaded guilty to felony possession with intent to distribute marijuana in January, along with three misdemeanors, including domestic battery.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 348-1723.