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Thread: Death Penalty Trial Set for Cylar Lamar Shemwell in 2019 KY Triple Murder

  1. #21
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    Judge: detectives did not coerce suspect in triple slaying investigation

    By James Mayes
    Messenger-Enquirer

    Aug. 26—A judge has ruled Owensboro Police Department officers did not coerce statements out of Arnett B. Baines, the Owensboro man charged with murder in a 2019 triple homicide on Audubon Avenue.

    Daviess Circuit Judge Jay Wethington ruled OPD Detective Todd Wilkerson and Officer Heath Stokes did not force Baines to make statements the day after the Jan. 17, 2109, shooting, in which three people were killed at the Audubon Avenue home. With the ruling, statements Baines made to investigators during the interview can be presented at trial.

    Baines, 34, and Cylar Shemwell, 35, are facing the possibility of the death penalty in the deaths of Robert D. Smith, 35, Jay Michael Sowders, 43, and Christopher Carey, 18. A fourth person, Carman Vanegas, was also shot in the head, but survived.

    Both Baines and Shemwell were charged with murder and first-degree assault. Video allegedly showing Baines and Shemwell entering the home, and someone believed to be Baines shooting three of the victims while a person believed to be Shemwell watches, was recovered from the home.

    At a hearing late last month, Baines' attorneys argued officers had coerced Baines to give a statement by threatening to charge the mother of his children, Coralee Hester, in connection with the shooting. A vehicle Hester was known to drive at times was seen dropping two people off — who officers believe to be Baines and Shemwell — at the home shortly before the shooting.

    In his ruling issued Wednesday, Wethington wrote Baines had three interviews with police. Baines was read his rights in the first interview, which was on a charge unrelated to the shooting, and waived his right to remain silent.

    In his second interview at 10:30 a.m., Baines refused to participate and said, "I don't want to do this. I'm not talking to you," which indicated Baines understood his right to remain silent, Wethington wrote.

    Baines was then taken to a holding cell and kept there for 90 minutes before being served with papers charging him in the murders. Shortly after receiving the papers, Baines said he wanted to talk to a detective.

    During the third interview, Wethington wrote, Baines was told police would try to get him an attorney, but wrote "at no time" did Baines indicate he was unwilling to talk, "nor did he clearly or unequivocally state he wanted counsel before proceeding."

    "The defendant clearly was aware of his right to not answer questions as well as his right to counsel," Wethington writes. After being told his rights again "he agreed to speak without counsel," Wethington wrote.

    The defense motion to suppress the interview says Baines mentioned his family in the third interview, and Wilkerson "almost immediately threatens to charge Mr. Baines' long-term girlfriend and the mother of his children, Coralee Hester, with being complicit in the murder, and tells Mr. Baines that his children will have no parents if he doesn't give a statement."

    Wethington wrote that the police comment was not coercion because Hester's arrest was a possibility at that moment in the investigation.

    "The accurate statement of the next steps in an investigation do not, in and of themselves, constitute coercion," Wethington wrote. "In other words, not every statement about negative consequences to self or others is coercion, particularly if that statement is accurate."

    Further, officers had probable cause to investigate Hester because the vehicle she was known to drive was seen dropping two men at the home near the time of the shooting.

    "This was not a fabrication," Wethington wrote. "This was articulated probable cause to question Coralee Hester and one of the motivating factors causing Baines' distress and voluntary waiver of his rights."

    During the interview, Baines "continued to mislead and attempt to deceive Detective Wilkerson, denying any involvement in the shootings, until the end of the interview when he is informed and finally believed he was on video committing the offenses," Wethington wrote.

    In the July hearing, Commonwealth's Attorney Bruce Kuegel said Baines told detectives in the third interview that Shemwell was the shooter, not himself. Baines denied Hester had any involvement in the incident. Hester was not charged.

    The next hearing in Baines' case is set for November. A trial date has not yet been set.

    https://www.aol.com/judge-detectives...092200593.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #22
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    Defense begins making argument against death penalty in triple homicide

    By James Mayes
    Messenger-Enquirer

    The defense team for Arnett B. Baines, the Owensboro man charged with fatally shooting three men in the head in 2019, started making their arguments Friday as to why Baines should not receive the death penalty if convicted.

    Baines, 35, is scheduled to go to trial in August in the January 2019 deaths of Jay Michael Sowders, Christopher Carie and Robert D. Smith in the basement of a home on Audubon Avenue.

    Baines and Cylar L. Shemwell, 36, also of Owensboro, both face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of murder in the fatal shootings, which were caught on surveillance camera inside the home.

    Baines is alleged to have shot the three men while Shemwell allegedly watched. A fourth victim, Carmen Vanegas, was also shot in the head, but survived.

    The defense team from the Department of Public Advocacy is asking Daviess Circuit Judge Jay Wethington to rule out the death penalty for Baines, contending that Baines suffers cognitive impairment as the result of brain injuries and lead poisoning.

    Dr. Marc Weisskopf, a professor of environmental epidemiology and physiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, testified by videoconference that he had reviewed Baines’ available medical, school and behavioral records, including brain scans done for the defense.

    Although Weisskopf has not examined Baines, Weisskopf testified that Baines showed signs of having been exposed to a high level of lead as a child. The defense record showed that Baines had been treated to remove lead from his system when he was 1 years old in Memphis, but the record did not say give an exact level of lead in Baines’ system when he was treated.

    “The effects on children tend to be much more severe,” Weisskopf said.

    Even when a person is treated to remove lead from their system, the treatment does not repair any existing damage to the brain and other organs, Weisskopf said.

    Weisskopf testified systems of brain damage from lead include impaired cognitive function, problems with memory, aggression, anxiety, depression and impulsivity.

    According to Weisskopf, head trauma can increase the impact of lead exposure, and testified that Baines grew up in the inner-city Memphis, which has areas of high lead concentration.

    Baines, Weisskopf said, scored low on cognitive tests and had poor performance during school and has impulsivity.

    Weisskopf said Baines possibly has narcolepsy and a type of seizure, which would be signs of brain damage from lead.

    “To my mind, this looks like a very classic picture of lead poisoning,” Weisskopf said. “There’s definitely damage to the brain.”

    Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Van Meter, in his cross-examination, noted that Baines has an IQ of 109 in elementary and middle school. When asked if drug use as an adult could have affected Baines’ cognitive ability, Weisskopf said that was possible.

    Weisskopf also said it was possible brain damage from lead exposure as a child affected Baines when he was an adult, resulting in cognitive impairment.

    Weisskopf said Baines’ drug use “could be a consequence of the lead exposure.”

    Wethington did not rule on the motion to exclude the death penalty Friday, but he is expected to rule at a hearing scheduled for April 8.

    https://www.messenger-inquirer.com/n...c3fd813be.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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