By Allen G. Breed and Olivia Diaz
Associated Press
DANVILLE, Va. (AP) — Steven Seiple remembers Danville City Councilman Lee Vogler’s screams.
“I remember Lee screaming: ‘He threw gas on me,’” Seiple testified in court Tuesday.
Seiple saw Vogler running through their workplace at a local magazine. He saw another man, Shotsie Buck-Hayes, chasing after him while carrying a bucket. And then there was a gas stain on the floor.
By the time Seiple caught up to Vogler, the councilman was lying in the mulch outside their office with his shirt burned off. The councilman’s body was covered with second- and third-degree burns.
Buck-Hayes, 29, was arrested later that July day. He has since been charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding in Vogler’s attack. On Tuesday, Danville General District Court Judge Greg Haymore found probable cause that Buck-Hayes attacked Vogler and allowed the case to proceed to a grand jury.
Prosecutors argued that Buck-Hayes purchased $3 of gasoline and went to Vogler’s office on July 30, 2025, intending to kill him. Buck-Hayes told authorities that his wife had been having an intimate relationship with Vogler, a police detective said in court.
Online records show that Buck-Hayes’ wife had filed for divorce earlier that month.
Blair Vogler, the councilman’s wife, testified that Lee Vogler’s burns covered 60% of his body. Pausing to swallow, Blair Vogler said on the stand that her husband also caught pneumonia from inhaling the flames.
Edward Lavado, an attorney representing Buck-Hayes, filed a motion requesting Buck-Hayes get a mental evaluation.
Vogler, 38, has served on the Danville City Council for more than a decade and is known as a fixture of the small city. He worked at the magazine primarily in sales.
Buck-Hayes is being held without bail in the Danville City Jail, records show. Haymore scheduled a grand jury to hear the case on Oct. 27.
Associated Press
DANVILLE, Va. (AP) — Steven Seiple remembers Danville City Councilman Lee Vogler’s screams.
“I remember Lee screaming: ‘He threw gas on me,’” Seiple testified in court Tuesday.
Seiple saw Vogler running through their workplace at a local magazine. He saw another man, Shotsie Buck-Hayes, chasing after him while carrying a bucket. And then there was a gas stain on the floor.
By the time Seiple caught up to Vogler, the councilman was lying in the mulch outside their office with his shirt burned off. The councilman’s body was covered with second- and third-degree burns.
Buck-Hayes, 29, was arrested later that July day. He has since been charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding in Vogler’s attack. On Tuesday, Danville General District Court Judge Greg Haymore found probable cause that Buck-Hayes attacked Vogler and allowed the case to proceed to a grand jury.
Prosecutors argued that Buck-Hayes purchased $3 of gasoline and went to Vogler’s office on July 30, 2025, intending to kill him. Buck-Hayes told authorities that his wife had been having an intimate relationship with Vogler, a police detective said in court.
Online records show that Buck-Hayes’ wife had filed for divorce earlier that month.
Blair Vogler, the councilman’s wife, testified that Lee Vogler’s burns covered 60% of his body. Pausing to swallow, Blair Vogler said on the stand that her husband also caught pneumonia from inhaling the flames.
Edward Lavado, an attorney representing Buck-Hayes, filed a motion requesting Buck-Hayes get a mental evaluation.
Vogler, 38, has served on the Danville City Council for more than a decade and is known as a fixture of the small city. He worked at the magazine primarily in sales.
Buck-Hayes is being held without bail in the Danville City Jail, records show. Haymore scheduled a grand jury to hear the case on Oct. 27.
