Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

WILKES-BARRE — Evidence seized from the New Jersey apartment of homicide suspect Anthony Shaw was taken without a search warrant and should be excluded at his trial in Luzerne County, his attorney believes.

Shaw’s attorney, David V. Lampman II, filed a 220-page motion this week seeking to prohibit prosecutors from using evidence taken from Shaw’s vehicle and his apartment in East Orange, N.J. Lampman is also seeking to have Shaw’s DNA, any statements he made to investigators, and crime scene and autopsy photographs kept out of trial.

Shaw, 42, is facing an open count of criminal homicide for the stabbing death of Cindy Lou Ashton, 39, inside her Nicholson Street residence in Wilkes-Barre Township. Her body was found by police May 2 when an officer performed a welfare check after she didn’t show for work.

Investigators believe Shaw and Ashton met on a dating website about a year before he allegedly killed her. Shaw arrived at Ashton’s residence May 1 to talk about their relationship and they agreed to remain friends with benefits, authorities report.

Ashton was last seen alive by a friend who left her residence at about 7 p.m. May 1 when Shaw allegedly arrived.

Investigators suspect Shaw purchased a Gerber folding knife and a pack of socks at Kmart on Wilkes-Barre Township Boulevard about 15 minutes before he arrived at Ashton’s residence. The store is located about a mile from her residence.

After Ashton’s body was found, investigators learned Shaw was hospitalized at Rutgers University Hospital after a failed suicide attempt May 3.

That same day, investigators and East Orange, N.J., police entered Shaw’s apartment. They said they found three knives and a note Shaw allegedly wrote. One of the knives, a Gerber folding knife, had suspected blood on it, court records state.

Investigators say the note found in Shaw’s apartment was an apology to Ashton’s family.

Lampman claims investigators entered Shaw’s apartment without a search warrant as part of a “suicide investigation,” and suicide is not a criminal offense in New Jersey.

Shaw’s attorney is also seeking to have a blood-soaked Kmart receipt and a receipt from a White Haven gas station, which were allegedly found in Shaw’s vehicle, excluded from trial.

Shaw’s trial before Judge Michael T. Vough is scheduled to begin March 4.

Shaw
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/web1_Anthony-Shaw3-07192018.jpg.optimal.jpgShaw

By Ed Lewis

[email protected]