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The state Supreme Court Wednesday in a one-page order declined to review the homicide case of Anthony Shaw, accused of fatally stabbing a woman inside her Wilkes-Barre Township residence nearly three years ago.

The ruling by the state’s highest appellate court allows Luzerne County prosecutors to proceed with use of evidence recovered inside Shaw’s East Orange, N.J., apartment and vehicle several days after the body of Cindy Lou Ashton, 39, was found during a police welfare check at her Nicholson Street home on May 1, 2018.

“Our office is very pleased with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denial of defendant’s petition for Allowance of Appeal in Commonwealth versus Shaw,” District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce stated. “We are greatly looking forward to moving this matter another step closer to trial to help the family of Cindy Ashton move somewhat closer to closure. While we realize that nothing will bring Cindy back to her family, the need to continue to pursue justice for them cannot be overstated.”

President Judge Michael T. Vough in August 2019 banned prosecutors from using three knives, plastic packaging, a notebook with an alleged handwritten note and store receipts during Shaw’s trial. Vough ruled police in East Orange recovered the evidence from Shaw’s apartment and vehicle without search warrants.

Vough’s ruling resulted in a series of appeals.

First, prosecutors appealed Vough’s ruling to the state Superior Court, which in turn, overruled the president judge’s finding permitting the use of evidence during Shaw’s trial.

After the Superior Court’s ruling in September 2020, Shaw’s attorneys, David W. Lampman III and Jessica Miraglia, appealed the Superior Court’s ruling to the Supreme Court asking for a review of the case, which was denied Wednesday.

The Supreme Court ruling basically upholds the Superior Court’s opinion restoring evidence against Shaw.

During a motions hearing before Vough in June 2019, prosecutors presented video footage recorded from an East Orange police officer’s body camera showing the officer was conducting a welfare check on Shaw.

The East Orange police officer knocked on Shaw’s apartment door. Having received no response, the officer had the apartment building’s manager open Shaw’s door resulting in a blood covered Shaw being found with self-inflicted injuries on May 3, 2018, two days after Ashton’s body was found.

Inside Shaw’s apartment, East Orange police found the notebook with the handwritten note and three knives covered with blood spatter.

When East Orange police entered Shaw’s apartment, investigators in Luzerne County were focusing on Shaw, 44, as the primary suspect.

Luzerne County Chief Det. Michael Dessoye contacted East Orange police on May 4, 2018, to inquire about Shaw and learned Shaw had attempted to take his own life the previous day.

Superior Court in its September 2020 opinion ruled investigators through proper channels would have discovered the evidence as part of their investigation, known as the “inevitable discovery doctrine.”

Investigators say they were concentrating on Shaw as the suspect when Ashton’s body was found after witnesses placed him at Ashton’s residence and surveillance footage from the now closed Kmart on Wilkes-Barre Township Boulevard showed Shaw purchasing knives and socks.

Vough has issued a gag order prohibiting Shaw’s attorneys and prosecutors from publicly speaking about the case.

PA Supreme Court denies to review Shaw’s homicide case