On Monday, March 11, 2019, the Lee County Virginia Circuit Court sentenced John Eldridge, of Pennington Gap, to life imprisonment in the Virginia Penitentiary. He was convicted on a charge of sexual battery, using an animate object to sexually penetrate a child under the age of 13. Lee County Commonwealth’s Attorney H. Fuller Cridlin issued a statement saying this is the second such case in the last ten months in which the office has obtained a life sentence.