Judge: detectives did not coerce suspect in triple slaying investigation

Aug. 26—A judge has ruled Owensboro Police Department officers did not coerce statements out of Arnett B. Baines, the Owensboro man charged with murder in a 2019 triple homicide on Audubon Avenue.

Daviess Circuit Judge Jay Wethington ruled OPD Detective Todd Wilkerson and Officer Heath Stokes did not force Baines to make statements the day after the Jan. 17, 2109, shooting, in which three people were killed at the Audubon Avenue home. With the ruling, statements Baines made to investigators during the interview can be presented at trial.

Baines, 34, and Cylar Shemwell, 35, are facing the possibility of the death penalty in the deaths of Robert D. Smith, 35, Jay Michael Sowders, 43, and Christopher Carey, 18. A fourth person, Carman Vanegas, was also shot in the head, but survived.

Both Baines and Shemwell were charged with murder and first-degree assault. Video allegedly showing Baines and Shemwell entering the home, and someone believed to be Baines shooting three of the victims while a person believed to be Shemwell watches, was recovered from the home.

At a hearing late last month, Baines' attorneys argued officers had coerced Baines to give a statement by threatening to charge the mother of his children, Coralee Hester, in connection with the shooting. A vehicle Hester was known to drive at times was seen dropping two people off — who officers believe to be Baines and Shemwell — at the home shortly before the shooting.

In his ruling issued Wednesday, Wethington wrote Baines had three interviews with police. Baines was read his rights in the first interview, which was on a charge unrelated to the shooting, and waived his right to remain silent.

In his second interview at 10:30 a.m., Baines refused to participate and said, "I don't want to do this. I'm not talking to you," which indicated Baines understood his right to remain silent, Wethington wrote.

Baines was then taken to a holding cell and kept there for 90 minutes before being served with papers charging him in the murders. Shortly after receiving the papers, Baines said he wanted to talk to a detective.

During the third interview, Wethington wrote, Baines was told police would try to get him an attorney, but wrote "at no time" did Baines indicate he was unwilling to talk, "nor did he clearly or unequivocally state he wanted counsel before proceeding."

"The defendant clearly was aware of his right to not answer questions as well as his right to counsel," Wethington writes. After being told his rights again "he agreed to speak without counsel," Wethington wrote.

The defense motion to suppress the interview says Baines mentioned his family in the third interview, and Wilkerson "almost immediately threatens to charge Mr. Baines' long-term girlfriend and the mother of his children, Coralee Hester, with being complicit in the murder, and tells Mr. Baines that his children will have no parents if he doesn't give a statement."

Wethington wrote that the police comment was not coercion because Hester's arrest was a possibility at that moment in the investigation.

"The accurate statement of the next steps in an investigation do not, in and of themselves, constitute coercion," Wethington wrote. "In other words, not every statement about negative consequences to self or others is coercion, particularly if that statement is accurate."

Further, officers had probable cause to investigate Hester because the vehicle she was known to drive was seen dropping two men at the home near the time of the shooting.

"This was not a fabrication," Wethington wrote. "This was articulated probable cause to question Coralee Hester and one of the motivating factors causing Baines' distress and voluntary waiver of his rights."

During the interview, Baines "continued to mislead and attempt to deceive Detective Wilkerson, denying any involvement in the shootings, until the end of the interview when he is informed and finally believed he was on video committing the offenses," Wethington wrote.

In the July hearing, Commonwealth's Attorney Bruce Kuegel said Baines told detectives in the third interview that Shemwell was the shooter, not himself. Baines denied Hester had any involvement in the incident. Hester was not charged.

The next hearing in Baines' case is set for November. A trial date has not yet been set.

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse