Shaw
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WILKES-BARRE — Evidence including knives and a hand written letter seized without a search warrant has been revived, a decision by Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough that strengthens the prosecution against homicide suspect Anthony Dion Shaw.
Vough issued his ruling after presiding over two days of hearings earlier this year including supplemental lengthy legal briefs filed by First Assistant District Attorney Anthony Ross, assistant district attorneys Daniel Marsh, Brian Coleman and Gerry Scott, and Shaw’s attorney, David V. Lampman II.
In in his ruling, Vough determined the evidence would had been discovered during the natural course of the investigation, known as the inevitable discovery doctrine, into the stabbing death of Cindy Lou Ashton, 39, inside her Nicholson Street residence in Wilkes-Barre Township on May 2, 2018.
Two relatives of Ashton, who resided in the same building, testified they saw Shaw, 46, with Ashton the day before her body was found.
Based on the relatives encounters with Shaw, including one relative who went with Shaw to a fitness center in Wilkes-Barre on May 1, 2018, county Det. James Noone testified Shaw was a “person of interest” the same day Ashton’s body was found during a welfare check by Wilkes-Barre Township police.
Vough further ruled there was apparently no signs of a break-in or forced entry into Ashton’s apartment, which would allow investigators to focus their efforts and securing search warrants for Shaw’s apartment in East Orange, N.J., and his vehicle, a 2002 Mercury Sable.
County Chief Det. Michael Dessoye previously testified he called East Orange police on May 4, 2018, inquiring about Shaw when investigators learned Shaw attempted to take his own life the day before inside his New Jersey apartment.
Vough in August 2019, based on Lampman’s efforts, barred the evidence recovered by East Orange police from Shaw’s apartment when they conducted their own welfare check on May 3, 2018. Vough initially ruled East Orange police entered Shaw’s apartment without a search warrant during the welfare check finding Shaw with self-inflicted slash wounds, a hand written letter in a notebook and three knives.
The discovery of the items led to other discoveries of evidence, including packaging for the knives and store receipts from the now closed Kmart in Wilkes-Barre Township, inside Shaw’s vehicle.
After Vough banned the evidence, prosecutors appealed his ruling with the state Superior Court that ordered a suppression hearing – two hearings were held – earlier this year resulting in Vough’s recent revival of the evidence.
“All of the evidence sought to be suppressed by (Shaw) is admissible at trial pursuant to the inevitable discovery doctrine,” Vough wrote in his nine page ruling.
Prosecutors are not in the clear just yet.
Vough scheduled a hearing for Oct. 5 on a request by Lampman to dismiss the case against Shaw.
Shaw is facing a single open count of criminal homicide. He remains jailed at the county correctional facility.