Defenders for Lashanda Person Bell and Annastaja Hathaway are pushing for murder indictments to be dismissed, in the 2006 cold-case death of 84-year-old Christian County man Roscoe Jones.
During Wednesday’s setting of Christian County Circuit Court, Person’s attorney Doug Moore told Judge Andrew Self that both his client and Hathaway, through defender Brandi Jones, wanted the opportunity to prove falsities were told to the grand jury.
Moore noted he wasn’t sure if all of the information shared impacted Person, Hathaway, both or neither, but that there was a need to have both in court at a later date for an evidentiary hearing.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Bolen asked Self if all previous parties needed to be in attendance for such a meeting.
Self also inquired of Bolen if she remained interested in pursuing the charges levied against the duo, which for Person includes murder and robbery in the first degree.
In order to let Moore and Jones corroborate a joint motion for their clients, Self granted a hearing for 9 AM August 8, and in turn vacated a pre-trial conference set for July 19.
He also granted favor of a second notion, refunding Person’s paid cash bond.
It was in April 2006, when Mayes was found dead in a Greenville Road. More than 16 years later, Person was arrested in Union County in May 2022, and Hathaway was taken into custody in Houston, Texas in June 2022 — following new connections to the cold case.
An evidentiary hearing might bring those potential connections more to light.
A third person of interest, Regina Vause, was arrested, but saw her murder charge dropped in July 2022 at the request of detectives with the Christian County Sheriff’s Office and then Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling.
Vause’s case, though, was dismissed without prejudice, meaning if the Commonwealth were to discover any new evidence that implicates Vause in connection with the crime, she could be re-indicted without double jeopardy.
