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Recent major attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure facilities

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Portion of new wall along Solomon Creek built, next phase of project underway in Wilkes-Barre

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Luzerne County prosecutors believe evidence in a homicide case barred by a judge would had been independently found during the course of the investigation.</p><p>Prosecutors are appealing a ruling last month by Judge Michael T. Vough that crippled their case against Anthony Shaw, 43, accused in the stabbing death of Cindy Lou Ashton, 39, inside her Nicholson Street, Wilkes-Barre Township, residence on May 1, 2018.</p><p>Ashton&#8217;s 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.</p><p>Vough issued his ruling that prohibited prosecutors from using evidence discovered in Shaw&#8217;s apartment in East Orange, N.J., where police found him with self-inflicted slashes and stab wounds on May 3, 2018. The judge determined police in East Orange entered Shaw&#8217;s apartment without warrant while conducting a welfare check on him when he failed to report to his employment for two days.</p><p>Three bloody knives and a several-page handwritten letter in a notebook prosecutors say was an apology Shaw wrote were found in his apartment. A receipt for the knives purchased at Kmart near Ashton&#8217;s residence and a receipt for gasoline at a service station in White Haven, which were found in Shaw&#8217;s vehicle, were also barred by Vough.</p><p>Prosecutors on Monday filed a one-page statement in connection to an appeal they filed with the state Superior Court saying Vough erred in suppressing the evidence. They believe the evidence should be admissible under the independent source and inevitable discovery doctrine, and the search was performed under the emergency caretaker doctrine.</p><p>Prosecutors believe the evidence from Shaw&#8217;s apartment and vehicle would had been found because investigators learned through witnesses that he was with Ashton the night of April 30, 2018, and used a credit card at a local fitness center and movie theater. A surveillance camera near Ashton&#8217;s residence recorded Shaw moving her vehicle on May 2, 2018, prosecutors say.</p><p>At the time East Orange police entered Shaw&#8217;s apartment on May 3, 2018, they were not aware Shaw was a suspect in Ashton&#8217;s slaying. It was a day after, May 4, 2018, when Luzerne County Chief Detective Michael Dessoye contacted East Orange police inquiring about Shaw.</p><p>Shaw&#8217;s attorneys, David W. Lampman II and Jessica Miraglia, are seeking to have the criminal homicide charge be dismissed, arguing lack of evidence to hold him.</p><p>Vough has stayed Shaw&#8217;s proceedings until the Superior Court makes a ruling.</p><p>Shaw remains jailed at the county correctional facility without bail.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_Cindy-Ashton-linkedin-photo.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Ashton</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_Cindy-Ashton-linkedin-photo.jpg</photo0><caption0>Ashton</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_Anthony-Shaw-08082019.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Shaw</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_Anthony-Shaw-08082019.jpg</photo1><caption1>Shaw</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>In statement, they argue evidence would have been discovered despite warrantless search</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Ed Lewis</p><p>elewis@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Prosecutors argue evidence in homicide case would had been discovered despite warrantless search