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Luzerne County prosecutors have been given a break in their homicide case against Anthony Shaw, accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend in Wilkes-Barre Township more than two years ago.
				The state Superior Court in a 17-page opinion Tuesday sent the case back to Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough to determine if evidence found in Shaw&rsquo;s New Jersey apartment without a warrant would have been found during the homicide investigation.
				It was a win-lose decision for prosecutors by the appellate court.
				The Superior Court did uphold Vough&rsquo;s opinion that evidence found in Shaw&rsquo;s apartment in East Orange was found without a search warrant.
				Shaw, 44, 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.
				While police and Luzerne County detectives investigated the homicide, police in East Orange, N.J., conducted their own welfare check on Shaw at his apartment May 3, 2018, when he failed to report to his job.
				An East Orange police officer entered his apartment, finding Shaw with self-inflicted slash wounds, three bloody knives, and a notebook with an alleged apology that prosecutors say is a confession. Store receipts from Kmart in Wilkes-Barre Township were found in Shaw&rsquo;s Mercury parked outside his apartment building.
				After a motions hearing in June 2019, Vough barred prosecutors from using evidence recovered from Shaw&rsquo;s apartment basing his ruling on New Jersey law, noting police in East Orange entered Shaw&rsquo;s apartment without a search warrant.
				Vough&rsquo;s ruling decimated the prosecution&rsquo;s case against Shaw.
				Prosecutors appealed on two issues: Whether Vough erred when he ruled the community caretaker doctrine did not justify entry into Shaw&rsquo;s apartment and, did Vough err when he did not consider evidence found in Shaw&rsquo;s apartment would have been inevitably discovered during the investigation.
				Testimony at the motions hearing held June 28, 2019, showed investigators in Luzerne County contacted authorities in East Orange on May 4, 2018, a day after Shaw was found with self-inflicted injuries.
				Prosecutors alleged evidence recovered by surveillance cameras at Kmart, homes near Ashton&rsquo;s residence and a gasoline service station showed Shaw was in the area would have supported a search warrant at Shaw&rsquo;s apartment.
				&ldquo;We conclude that the suppression court properly determined that (East Orange police officer&rsquo;s) warrantless entry into Shaw&rsquo;s apartment did not pass muster under New Jersey&rsquo;s community-caretaking exception. Thus, we hold that (prosecutors&rsquo;) first issue warrants no relief,&rdquo; the Superior Court opined.
				On the second appeal argument, prosecutors were given a reprieve.
				&ldquo;(Prosecutors) point out that Shaw was the primary suspect in a homicide and surveillance video shows him leaving the scene of the crime in his vehicle shortly before the victim&rsquo;s body was found and arriving at his own apartment in New Jersey in that vehicle,&rdquo; the Superior Court ruled.
				The appellate court continued to rule that an exception to the search warrant requirement is the inevitable discovery doctrine, finding that the case is &ldquo;complex&rdquo; involving two law enforcement agencies in two states.
				&ldquo;In these circumstances, the failure to grant, let alone address (prosecutors) request to supplement the record prior to granting the suppression motion seeking to exclude nearly all evidence at issue in his case, was error,&rdquo; the Superior Court ruled.
				The Superior Court vacated Vough&rsquo;s suppression order and remanded to his court for further arguments.

Prosecutors given reprieve in Shaw homicide case