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WILKES-BARRE — An attorney for homicide suspect Anthony Dion Shaw is seeking to have more evidence abolished at his upcoming trial in Luzerne County.
Attorney David W. Lampman is requesting to have surveillance video recorded at Kmart in Wilkes-Barre Township and the Fuel One gasoline service station in White Haven banned from being used by prosecutors.
Lampman claims investigators uncovered the video recordings at the two businesses only after discovering receipts from the two businesses from Shaw’s vehicle and apartment in East Orange, N.J.
“In this case, the surveillance video from Kmart was discovered by police because of the Kmart receipt and Gerber knife packaging found in (Shaw’s) 2003 Mercury Sable on May 11, 2018. This Kmart receipt and Gerber knife packaging were found as a result of the illegal search of the vehicle,” Lampman wrote.
Judge Michael T. Vough in a ruling Aug. 5 barred prosecutors from using evidence recovered from Shaw’s apartment and vehicle.
Vough ruled East Orange, N.J., police unlawfully discovered the evidence without a search warrant while conducting a welfare check on Shaw, who was found with self-inflicted stab wounds inside his New Jersey apartment on May 4, 2018.
Vough’s ruling hampers prosecutors since a Gerber knife and two other knives covered with blood were found in Shaw’s apartment, including a notebook investigators said was an apology he wrote.
Footage from a body camera worn by an East Orange police officer inside Shaw’s apartment shows the officer flipping through the notebook that was on a kitchen counter. The body camera footage was played for Vough during a motions hearing in June.
Shaw, 43, is accused of stabbing to death Cindy Lou Ashton, 39, inside her Nicholson Street, Wilkes-Barre Township, residence on May 1, 2018. Her body was found by a township police officer May 2, 2018, while conducting a welfare check when she failed to show up at her employment.
Investigators alleged in the criminal complaint Shaw purchased a Gerber knife and socks at Kmart in the Blackman Shopping Plaza, about one mile from Ashton’s residence before she was killed.
After Ashton was killed, Shaw was allegedly recorded at the Fuel One service station refueling his Mercury.
Surveillance video at Fuel One shows Shaw with bandages on his hand while video at Kmart does not show Shaw with bandages, court records say.
“Since the video was only discovered as a result of the prosecutors illegal conduct, it is subject to suppression under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine,” Lampman wrote.
Lampman is also seeking to have Shaw released from the county correctional facility.
District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis previously said her office is considering an appeal of Vough’s ruling. If prosecutors filed an appeal, it will likely delay Shaw’s trial scheduled to begin Monday.
