CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Tim Armstead, a West Virginia Supreme Court justice who also served as Republican speaker of the House of Delegates during a 20-year legislative career, died Tuesday, the court announced. He was 60.
Armstead died following a brief hospitalization, the court said in a statement without elaborating.
Armstead was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2018 to fill a vacancy by the retirement of Justice Menis Ketchum. Armstead won a special election later that year to serve the remainder of Ketchum's term. Ketchum later was sentenced in federal court to probation on a felony fraud count related to his personal use of a state vehicle and gas fuel card.
Armstead then was elected to a full 12-year term on the court in 2020. He served as the court's rotating chief justice in 2020 and 2024.
In a statement, Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Armstead was “a good and decent man who always tried to set the right ethical tone in all of his actions.”
Born in Charleston, Armstead graduated from the University of Charleston and earned a law degree from West Virginia University. He served on the staffs of U.S. District Judge David Faber and Govs. Arch A. Moore Jr. and Cecil Underwood. Underwood appointed Armstead to a vacant seat on the House of Delegates in 1998 and he was elected later that year. He was named House speaker in 2015.
Republican Delegate Roger Hanshaw replaced Armstead as House speaker and remains in the position.
“West Virginia lost a very special person today, and I lost another wonderful friend,” Hanshaw said. “I will miss the wise counsel he often gave me in times of tough decisions.”
When he ran for the 12-year Supreme Court seat in 2020, Armstead said the court had become more open and transparent following a 2018 impeachment scandal and that restoring confidence in the court among residents was a priority.
House lawmakers impeached several justices over questions involving more than $3 million in renovations to the justices’ offices — included one justice’s $32,000 blue suede couch —and expanded to broader accusations of corruption, incompetence and neglect of duty. The scandal prompted an extraordinary move by one branch of government to essentially fire another.
But five acting justices later derailed the impeachment trials. In 2019 the U.S. Supreme Court left that decision in place.
Armstead had recused himself from the 2018 House debate over the impeachment articles because he had expressed interest in the court, whose elections became nonpartisan in 2016.
Last year Armstead appointed an advisory committee to propose revisions to the state Code of Judicial Conduct. The committee will issue its recommendations to the Supreme Court for review later this year.
Current Chief Justice Bill Wooton said Armstead's colleagues "looked to Tim’s example on thorny ethical issues. Likewise, his knowledge of state finances has been an invaluable resource to the West Virginia judicial system.”
Armstead is survived by his wife, Anna, a daughter and two grandchildren.
John Raby, The Associated Press
