Criminal Justice System


I have created this blog to discuss Americans in American prisons.

Their families - their victims - their life in prison - did they learn anything--- and is the American prison system rehabilitative? Traumatic? Or do they come out worse than when they went in?
I will talk about miscellaneous cases - and try to contact the prisoners with reader's questions.....
I will post the inmates letters - comments -- etc.
I hope you will find this site educational - informational - and eye opening.
All the best -

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Shawn Paul Novak



As a former resident of Virginia Beach - I know this case personally.

Shawn Novak was a resident of the Wadsworth Military Housing Community with his family in the early 90's.
He attended Virginia Beach Junior High - and First Colonial High School.
He was very bright - eclectic -- and also a little bit on the "weird" side.
I remember hearing about him in my high school - and how the other kids would say that he wore dead birds around his neck - and a cat's paw - on the last day of school.... I don't know if these stories are true --- I am going to try to find out.....
Well, as the case goes - Shawn was out in his neighborhood on an evening, March 04,1991. He ran into 2 children- Daniel Wayne Geier (9) and Christopher "Scot" Weaver (7), riding their bicycles. The two children were interested in Shawn - because he always had mysterious and mystical stories to tell - and he engaged in magical role playing episodes with the kids in the neighborhood.
Shawn was very interested in the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game at the time. The Virginian Pilot and Ledger Star reports that Shawn saw the youngsters as "Kender" or "Kinder" as in the D & D game. "Kender" are described as "small boned" and under 4 ft tall. They are described as "savage warrior children, ever curious, ever alert". (Wikipedia)
So, on this evening in March, Shawn was playing with the two children- and they entered the woods on the outskirts of the housing complex.
Apparently, the 2 young boys put their bikes on a trail at the beginning of the woods - and entered the wooded area with Shawn.
Shawn carried a knife. A big, serrated knife with a bone handle. The two children were so interested in the knife - they were begging Shawn to allow them to handle it.
He refused......
The 2 boys schemed to get the knife away from Shawn - and they managed to do so......
Shawn eyed Daniel with the knife - and then (as the defense states) he went into a type of dysphoric experience.. Shawn attacked - as if he were an actual D & D warrior. He slit the boys throats - killing them
Maybe Shawn was in a fog---- maybe he was in another reality---- who knows????
Shawn later explained to a psychiatrist that he "watched the [killings] from above." As if the whole event were an"out of body" experience.

He laid the dead boys next to each other, and covered them with pine branches and leaves.

When the two boys did not return home that evening, a search party was coordinated.
A Washington Post article dated March 07, 1991 reads: "A round the clock search involving dogs, divers, helicopters and hundreds of officers, neighbors and members of the military turned up their fully clothed bodies Tuesday evening, partly hidden under branches, about a half-mile from home."

"A young boy who knows the woods well helped guide police." This "young boy" was Shawn.


Classmates of Shawn told the police that he had come to school bragging about finding the boys bodies.


Shawn, 16, was tried in the Virginia Beach Circuit Court as an adult, and was sentenced to life. He will come up for parole in 2011.



43 comments:

  1. I remember this, I also went to school with Shawn & heard the rumours of the dead bird around his neck, I also heard he hung his family dog from a tree. Are you going to do any more on this blog?

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    1. His family didn't have a dog. His mother would not allow pet animals in the house.

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    2. My mom said she went to church with Shawn

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  2. I knew Daniel and Chris we were neighbors, but Shawn never seem weird to me. He was always nice and spoke to everyone around him. I couldn't believe it when it happened until all the evidence came about.

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    1. there was no physical evidence. Not even a single drop of blood or scrap of DNA.

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    2. I was a neighbor to Shawn .It was a very sad day,at the time I had small children,I assisted the families looking through the neighborhood,I sat and watched as the crime lab came and took evidence out.then the family was gone.I hope he never gets out.

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    3. I was a neighbor to Shawn .It was a very sad day,at the time I had small children,I assisted the families looking through the neighborhood,I sat and watched as the crime lab came and took evidence out.then the family was gone.I hope he never gets out.

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    4. The shrine notebooks to serial killers in his room wasn't enough? The evidence of the knife found in his room, that matches marks on the tree branches wasn't enough? His confession? If you're defending him you're as bad as his wifey and his greedy defense attorney.

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  3. I can verify the story about the dead birds. I lived in Wadsworth Housing at the time. I can also verify that he was considered "weird" even to those of us that played D&D. He hung around on the outskirts of our group of friends. I don't think the dog from the tree is true or at least I never heard it before. I will say that Sean checked out books on serial and psychotic killers from the library for months before any of this happened. I have no doubt that this was not "planned" in detail, but it makes it no less horrifying. Even those of us that knew him still, 20 years later it is hard to believe.

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  4. I remember this as well, in school a lot of people didn't hang around him because he was "werid" always wore a jean jacket with with the sleeves cut off with a heavy leather jacket underneath. You pretty much stayed out of his way when he walked down the hall. He had the look of "don't mess with me or else".

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    1. Yeah my mom said she went to church with him

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  5. I went to school with Shawn. Did not know him personally but crossed art classes with him many times...maybe spoke to him a half a dozen times when our art classes had the same room due to sharing supplies. He was what someone would consider weird in relation to the main stream at FC HS (not a jock, not a surfer, not a stoner) He wore all black when I saw him in class, large cross on chain around his neck (never saw the bird or cats paw). Never saw him look into anyones eyes when he talked to them. I do remmeber he would talk to himself...not pyschotic like but more like a conversation in his head that he was verbally expressing. It was odd but then most things about him seemed odd in relation to his environment. He was not the slightest bit intimidating because he was kind of small/slight framed kid who walked with his head down most times I saw him. I was suprised but shocked when I found out he committed those murders. I was really only shocked by the brutality of it and the fact that those poor kids were so young. But if given a police line up of all the poeple in my HS school he would have made the first selection of potentials.

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  6. I was also living in Wadsworth at the time. Was also an acquaintance of Shawn as well. We had been part of the same D&D circle of friends. This murder touched home in a lot of ways. The day of the murders, me and several friends were in the woods. We were the ones who found the bikes. When we found them, we did not know whose they were. This was before the two young kids went missing offically. Being young kids at the time, we did something unexpected. We thought it would be funny to throw the bikes in the lake that separated the woods of Wadsworth and the ??Great Lake?? subdivision. So we tossed them in. Unbeknownst to us, the murders were happening at the same time. When the hunt started for the kids, all the information was that they were snapped up by a black man. Of course. The whole community was shocked when Shawn turned himself in. This experience has troubled me throughout my life. What if we had been only yards away from the boys? What if we could have saved them? What if.. I dont' know if anyone will read this or care, but I felt I need to say something.

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    1. What if...they could have gotten away if their bikes had been there for them to use....what if.....I care

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    2. Do not blame yourself. EVER.
      The boys were too far in the woods, otherwise you would have heard them. There's no way Shawn let them go too far out of his sight. Shawn is the only one to blame. Those poor boys didn't have a chance with or without the bikes.

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    3. Rodney,

      I hope you have come to understand that tossing a couple of bikes in the lake was not what allowed this to happen. This is not your burden to carry.

      Instead, I want you to better understand that moments of opportunity often times brings out the very worst in people - simply because they have very poor impulse control over themselves.

      You can not / should never feel responsible / guilty over this crime. Because of your remorse, I have no doubt that if you had been with them in the woods, you would have promptly intervened.

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    4. Rodney the only person responsible for the murders is Shawn Novak. You were a kid...just a mischievous kid. Nothing more. Leave the burden where it belongs. On the shoulders of the killer.

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  7. I remember allot of speculation that Novak took the fall for the kid who owned the knife that was used. What I remember most about this unfortunate event was all the really stupid people going full retard.

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    1. The knife was his... It was a gift from his father. And you can't accuse people of going "full retard" and then spell "a lot" wrong...

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  8. When is he scheduled for release? I read back the life sentence was only 25 yrs so mathematics say 2017 he should be released?

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  9. When is he scheduled for release? I read back the life sentence was only 25 yrs so mathematics say 2017 he should be released?

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  10. I just so happened to fall across this blog by thinking about the situation and googling it. I grew up in Wadsworth from 88 to 90 and knew both shawn and Daniel very well then. I remember when me and Daniel would go through the woods to go play in the lake. The times we would go to the golf course and steal the balls before the red flag tried to come for us (which they never did lol) with a shirt full of golf balls. I remember seeing shawn all the time on the little bike track in the neighborhood. I actually got a pocket knife thrown at me, hitting me in my forehead and having to walk home leaking. It was a time we were all in the woods one day at the lake and I was a little younger than shawn was I'm around daniel's age,so the older kids were on one side of the lake and we on the other. All the older kids started grabbing clams from the water and throwing them at us and vise versa. Having fun. Eventually one of them hit me in my shoulder and put a descent gash on it. When the older kids found out shawn came over looked at it and rushed on his bike to get butterfly stitches came back and got me straight. I never went to the hospital to get it looked at or nothing, and it was pretty bad. I appreciated him for that and never forgot about it. Daniel was a cool little red head boy, a great childhood friend. We had a lot of fun times my friend. RIP. Shawn I pray for you. My condolences goes out to all the families involved.

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  11. I just so happened to fall across this blog by thinking about the situation and googling it. I grew up in Wadsworth from 88 to 90 and knew both shawn and Daniel very well then. I remember when me and Daniel would go through the woods to go play in the lake. The times we would go to the golf course and steal the balls before the red flag tried to come for us (which they never did lol) with a shirt full of golf balls. I remember seeing shawn all the time on the little bike track in the neighborhood. I actually got a pocket knife thrown at me, hitting me in my forehead and having to walk home leaking. It was a time we were all in the woods one day at the lake and I was a little younger than shawn was I'm around daniel's age,so the older kids were on one side of the lake and we on the other. All the older kids started grabbing clams from the water and throwing them at us and vise versa. Having fun. Eventually one of them hit me in my shoulder and put a descent gash on it. When the older kids found out shawn came over looked at it and rushed on his bike to get butterfly stitches came back and got me straight. I never went to the hospital to get it looked at or nothing, and it was pretty bad. I appreciated him for that and never forgot about it. Daniel was a cool little red head boy, a great childhood friend. We had a lot of fun times my friend. RIP. Shawn I pray for you. My condolences goes out to all the families involved.

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  12. Scot was my best friend. We played in those woods and all over that navy housing neighborhood. I lived on Catskill CT. I remember my red bike got stolen from the park and someone found it dumped in those woods. Was always told to stay out of there because of the older kids hanging out there. I had just moved out of Oceana maybe a month prior to the killings because my dad was restationed to Kings Bay, GA. Never thought about the possibility that I could've been with him if i hadnt had to move away. Didnt know exactly what happened until I read the details here tonight. Did not know any info on it except he had been stabbed is what they told me when I was 7. Hope they keep him in there for rest of his life. This just popped into my head so Googled it for the first time. So sad. RIP Scot and Daniel

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  13. This tragic event has touched so many lives in Virginia Beach; especially military families. My wife lived in that same exact neighborhood when this happened. She knew of all three (3) kids that were involved. Wassworth was never known to be a great neighborhood before this happened, but as soon as this whole thing came to light, her parents never let her play out of sight or in those woods again. Myself, I was 12 years old & was promptly turned over the cops by a lunatic mother (she also approved of "physical force", according to the cops who questioned me) who swore to the cops I had something to do with it; before Shawn was arrested. Needless to say, I don't see eye to eye with my mother any longer. I'll never forget this story. Every time I drive near Birdneck & general boot blvd, I think of this time in my life. I hope they never let him out of jail. I hope he lives through a life that he wasted - HIS. I hope the victim's families have been able to find some measure of peace, have lived their own lives as best as possible & have closure one day. It is because of this event that I've become a better person & help others that can not help themselves. I was only 12, then, but learned a lot about life during those few days. We all cried for the gross injustice that happened on that day.

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  14. Just want to vent. Who is this.

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  15. My name is Ryan R. My wife is Rebecca R. I believe that she lived in Dewey court at the time; 1990.

    After I told her about this blog / post, she said that she still remembers how Shawn basically walked volunteers right to the bodies. She was 10 years old at that time. She was deeply affected by this tragedy.

    I apologize for "just wanting to vent" popping up on this forum as my login. That was intentionally used to remain anonymous.

    Those events I'm my previous post was a terrible reality for me.

    My mother was just diagnosed with having BPD & a host of other PD tendencies, such as BP, NPD, OCD & depression. My absent minded / dissociative naval step father was NO match for her, neither was I at 12 years old.

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  16. Tami weaver was my baby sitter while my mother was at work and my father was out at sea in the navy.I lived in Catskill court in wadsworth naval housing. I remember Christopher weaver as he was my friend. Hope shawn Novak dies in prison as Christopher's family will live in theirs forever RIP Scot weaver

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    1. I just watched this case on a TV show. Did he come up for parole in 2015 again? Please tell me this monster is still in jail.

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  17. Did he get released in 20015? Please tell me this monster is still in jail. Are some of you actually defending him?! Some say not enough evidence. As if his admission wasn't enough, isn't the fact that his room was pretty much a shrine to serial killers a bit odd? How about his knife, that matches the tree branch marks, was in his room? That's not enough? You people defending him are as bad as his wifey and his greedy attorney. He was just evil. It's people like his wife and greedy attorney,and people like you, that have mental disorders. Wtf?!

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    1. @Stacy: Found in VPB decisions for 2015, link below.

      _-= Parole denied. =-_

      anyone know how long before next hearing? Is it like every 3 years?

      Here's to hoping we don't have to hear his name come up again for a long time, it must take their families a bottle of xanax each just to sleep at night during each review.


      https://vpb.virginia.gov/files/1106/vpb-decisions-june15.pdf

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  18. i hope he gets whats coming to him nasty murder i hope novak should go out the same as those two helpless children lets prey nothing like this ever happens to children in his family .but once a killer always a kill use the .33 buy a bullet and get rid of novak

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  19. I remember this very well. I was 6 at the time. Daniel and Scot went to school with me. I rode the bus with Daniel. I lived right up the road from them and we all (the kids in the neighborhood) rode bikes together often. This case still shakes me to the core. It made me grow up to be a very protective mother. My heart still breaks every time the memory of Daniel and Scot come up.

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  20. I lived in Catskill Court at the time and knew Daniel can't really recall Chris but I remember Daniel from a LDR class we took I was very young at the time maybe 2 years older then Daniel some my memory of some things is kinda blah. I remember my older brother who to school with Shawn telling me about the bird skull thing before this all went down. I also remember having some run ins with a kid at Birdneck Elementary who I was told was Shawn's younger brother if he was then wow they were some creepy run ins.

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  21. Glad yloure still with us. Lived in catskill ct too.

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  22. This case was disgusting and for those that stand behind him are just as dumb and disgusting as him and his wife. What's gonna happen when that sick freak is let out and his pathetic wife allows him to go around their daughter. What will happen when that little girl pisses him off and he decides to almost decapitate her the way he did to those INNOCENT boys. What will happen then??? Everyone will be singing a different tune then. That little girl should of been taken away from that lady A LONG TIME AGO. Talk about putting a child in danger. Wow I don't think u can get anymore dangerous. So sad!!!

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    1. Keep that freak in jail until it's his time to go 6 feet under. Better yet... cremate him so it's guaranteed he's dead!!! Eye for an eye!!!

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