Trigg County Circuit Judge Jamus Redd has more than wine and spirits to mull this holiday season.
Following Friday’s two-hour evidentiary hearing in Cadiz involving Jonathan McCoy, Redd told the court he would take time before making a ruling in the defense’s motion for change of venue.
Alongside Keisha Stewart and Allison Hunter, McCoy is charge and accused of the most serious offenses in the 2020 kidnapping and murder of Thelma “Ileen” Barnett, as well as the arson of her Will Jackson Road home.
And it’s the belief of his counsel — Wesley Boyarski, Christy Hiance and Rick Lawniczak — that, based on several circumstances, McCoy would not receive a fair trial in Trigg County, and thus needs to be in front of a less-tainted jury.
Chief among those circumstances: the ongoing media coverage of McCoy’s hearings.
To prove her thesis, Boyarski called both Public Defender’s Primary Fact Investigator April Rush and Private Investigator Erin Kincaid for testimony.
Rush said at least 29 articles had been published through various organizations about McCoy since his December 2020 arrest, many of them garnering inscrutable bias and hateful comments from Cadiz and Trigg County’s citizens.
Kincaid, meanwhile, said she spent a day in Cadiz this past November, first going to several businesses on Main Street, before posting up at Food Giant.
At these spots, she said she asked citizens and business owners about McCoy’s case — and heard comments like “he needs to hang,” “they’re all guilty” and other similar statements, some of which were vetted through affidavit.
Several individuals, Kincaid added, noted they either knew the Barnett family, the McCoy family, or both.
She also said McCoy, himself, has expressed concerns about possible bias and predisposition.
In response, Commonwealth’s Attorney Carrie Ovey-Wiggins said she submitted three affidavits of her own, and called Cadiz Police Chief Tyler Thomas to the stand.
Ovey-Wiggins also asked Redd to consider the fact that in the last four years, 29 articles only generated around 25 social media comments — and that the most recent article published by WKDZ, on December 11, generated little-to-no social media traction in Cadiz and Trigg County.
Boyarski, though, asked for Redd to look at Calloway, Lyon, Livingston and Christian counties as possible locations for a better jury, and specifically noted Calloway County’s 29,914 voters and Christian County’s 50,896 voters as bigger pools from which to select the 12 needed, plus alternates, for the upcoming February 2025 trial.
For reference, Boyarski said Trigg County had just above 12,000 voters.
Redd did deny the defense’s motion asking for evidence be stricken, regarding McCoy’s purchasing of a gas can at Wal-Mart the day of Barnett’s murder and home arson. Lawniczak argued that an arson investigation determined a failure to locate the fire’s accelerant, and thus made McCoy’s procurement prejudicial and “classic confirmation bias 101.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Chad Nelson, however, urged that circumstantial evidence is still evidence — and given the timeline, and the nature of gasoline, a jury would be able to reasonably conclude nothing but the obvious.
All parties are expected back in court 9 AM, January 10.
FULL HEARING:
