Surveillance video of the 2019 triple homicide on Audubon Avenue was the center of attention during a Monday hearing, and missing footage could affect the trial date.
Arnett Baines, now 35, and Cylar Shemwell, now 36, are both facing three counts of murder charges for the shooting deaths of Robert D. Smith Jr., 35; Jay Michael Sowders, 43; and Christopher Carie, 18. They both face a first-degree assault because a fourth person, Carman Vanegas, who was 35 at the time, was also shot in the head but survived.
Baines and Shemwell are being tried separately. A hearing was held Monday for Baines, whose trial is set to take place in February; Shemwell’s trial is set for June.
Defense Attorney Sara Zeurcher stated during Monday’s hearing that the surveillance footage set to be used in Baines’ case shows the Audubon Avenue home, which belonged to Sowders, in the days leading up to the shooting as well as some time after the incident. Zeurcher said 8 different cameras were recording various areas of the home 24 hours a day, including the basement where the shootings occurred.
The case is being heard by Circuit Judge Jay Wethington. Zeurcher on Monday requested that Wethington not allow jurors to consider the death penalty due to missing footage from those surveillance cameras.
Zeurcher said the defense notified prosecutors on May 18, 2023, that the surveillance files they received had some errors.
“The copy of the surveillance we have has lots of files that show zero data. I’m not sure if it’s a copying error or what it is — and I would just like a fresh copy,” she said. “A lot of the files we have either pull up a black screen or don’t open at all. We get an error message.”
Zeurcher said that during Friday’s hearing, Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Van Meter provided her with a new hard drive that still had missing files.
“So here we are now in December, 2 months from trial, and I have to go back to 2 hard drives and compare every single file to see what we were missing and how much we’re missing, and also document whatever is needed, too,” Zeurcher said.
Van Meter said their hard drive, which was provided by Kentucky State Police, had some missing files, but do not know if it’s the same files they both are missing.
Wethington ultimately denied the motion to exclude the death penalty and said that both the defense and prosecution would need to “use their best tech gurus” to remedy the issue. He also noted that if there were further troubles, he would reconsider a motion to continue.
The next hearing in the case is set for January 18. The trial is scheduled to begin February 5 and is expected to take weeks.
