Grand jury to hear case against man accused of setting Virginia city councilman on fire over affair

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. “His chest was very pink, and his arms were really, really bad,” Seiple testified.

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. After the hearing, he left the courtroom before a reporter had the opportunity to ask him questions about the case.

Vogler, 38, has served on the Danville City Council for more than a decade and is known as a fixture of the small city near the Virginia-North Carolina state line, about 140 miles (230 kilometers) north of Charlotte. He worked at the magazine primarily in sales.

Andrew Scott Brooks, editor and publisher of Showcase Magazine, says the attacker forced his way into the office despite the door being locked and went straight for Vogler.

“There is no justification for lashing out,” Brooks said on the day of the incident. “This type of act of senseless violence needs to stop.”

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.