A Cabell
County circuit judge said Wednesday he
intends to choose a jury in Mingo
County
Judge Paul Farrell told prosecutors
and defense attorneys during a pretrial hearing for Tennis Maynard to prepare
for the trial to be in Williamson beginning March 4, 2014.
“The judge made it clear that we’re
going to try to pick a jury in Mingo County and attempt to find 12 objective
jurors and if that’s not possible the judge is going to look elsewhere,
probably Cabell County,” Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants, the special
prosecutor in the case, said.
Maynard is charged in the April
shooting death of Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum. The popular was shot in the
head as he was eating lunch in his cruiser in Williamson. Maynard drove from
the scene and was shot several times by an off-duty deputy just minutes after
the Crum shooting. He suffered critical injuries but survived. He’s now in the
Western Regional Jail.
Plants was appointed to the case
after former Mingo County Prosecutor Michael Sparks recused himself just days
before he resigned. Sparks
Plants said his office has done a
good job catching up and the investigation continues.
“We’re using an independent
investigator from the State Police to leave no stone unturned, following every
lead,” Plants said.
Judge Ferrell ordered a mental
evaluation for Maynard to find out if he’s competent to stand trial.
“We anticipate to be ready to go
March 4th,” Plants said. “The only issue out there is the mental
evaluations. Once they’re completed, they (the defense) have an expert and
we’ll have an expert and based on their conclusions we’ll move forward to
trial.”
Maynard did not appear in Judge
Farrell’s courtroom Wednesday; he was on video from the regional jail.
The judge also said that Plants would stay as the special
prosecutor even though a new prosecutor was sworn-in in Mingo County Wednesday.
