Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It was approaching noon on a Saturday. The thermometer was climbing, but only to a modest 83 degrees in northwest Arkansas. It was a sunny start to the final weekend before the Independence Day holiday in P Ridge. Residents were preparing for their freedom fest celebration and a parade later in the day. Neither event would go on as scheduled.
Around 1130 P Ridge, officers Brian Stamps and Kevin Apple got word that Rogers police had chased someone in a blue jeep. They were still looking for the vehicle and its driver. The officers spotted a blue jeep parked at the pumps of the White Oak station in their rural Benton county town. They approached it carefully in a flash. That festive Saturday dramatically changed. Hours later, the town would unite to light candles and mourn.
I'm Greg Hartin, and this is the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette's know the news podcast. Our prelude today describes the heartbreaking events of June 26, 2021. Police say officer Apple died after that jeep struck one of the police cars and then ran him over. Had been with the department three years, but had served in law enforcement for 23 that day. An officer Apple's sacrifice will not be forgotten in Pea Ridge. Jury selection starts Monday in bitten County Circuit Court for the woman police say was driving that jeep, which was later apprehended in Bella Vista. Tracy Neal, our longtime courts and crime reporter in Benton county, joins me today. He'll have a story this weekend telling us what to expect as the prosecution and defense of Shauna Cash gets underway.
Tracy, can you tell me a little bit about what we know about Shauna Cash and how she ended up facing trial for capital murder?
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Well, on that day in Rogers, I think Shauna Cash and Elijah Andozola had stolen mail out of someone's mailbox, and the resident chased him, notified police and Johnny Cash and Michael and Zolo, they then fled. Rogers, and Rogers police issued a bolo for them and officer Apple and another police officer, P Ridge police officer, saw them at that gas station and went to check it out.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: So a bolo is beyond the lookout.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Be on the lookout for.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Okay, so this all started with just stealing mail.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Wow.
The events then played out there at the gas station, and I guess a chase ensued. And they caught up with them in Bella Vista?
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Yes. Unfortunately, Officer Apple was standing in front of her car when she fled. She hit him and she left a gas station, and she was later apprehended in Bella Vista area.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Now, nobody probably knew that, I'm guessing in that moment, but she had quite a history with local law enforcement.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: She had quite a history. She had been arrested, but I think about it. I don't think there was any violence. I think most of her cases involved drugs. I know a few of them also involves fleeing from police. And I know at least two or three of them may have involved a stolen vehicle, been in a stolen vehicle or whatever. So there was no outright what you would call. I don't think there was any violence related to her perform, but most of.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: It'S just drug charges, and she had basically gotten probation on each of the charges.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: She's been given probation before, but I think she was released from jail because you have to remember this was a time of COVID and they were trying to keep the jails as empty as possible, probably with fear people as possible. So that's one reason she probably was out, is because of COVID because she had also had failed to appear for court.
So Covid probably was one of the leading factors that she was free at that time.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Okay.
All right, I think we're going to take a brief break. I'll be back in just a moment with more of our conversation.
[00:04:36] Speaker C: If you're enjoying this podcast, consider a newspaper subscription to the northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette or the River Valley Democrat Gazette. We have a special offer for our podcast listeners, so visit nwanline.com nwapodcast to get started. You can also click the subscribe button on our websites, nwanline.com and rivervalledemocratgazette.com, or call us at 479-684-5509 and be sure to say that you're a podcast listener. Now back to the show.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: And we're back with Tracy Neal, who covers crime in the courts in Benton county for the Democrat Gazette. So, Tracy, we know kind of in our court system that no one is guilty until the accusations have been proven for jurors or for a judge. So we're not going to get into opinions about guilt or innocence here, but tell me a little bit about what's at stake for Shauna Cash as her trial approaches. What are the potential outcomes for her?
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Well, I guess, as people know, the biggest outcome, prosecutors are seeking a death penalty.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: And is that primarily because of the death of an officer?
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Yes, and, of course, mainly because of the death of Officer Apple, I'm sure.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: And so that's the main difference. That's the biggest outcome in this case, is whether she will end up getting sentenced to death, I guess.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Okay, so the choices are death or life.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Well, the choice, well, I don't want to get too much into legal words, but right now she's charged with capital murder okay. And if she's convicted of capital murder, only two options is life or death.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: But there's a chance that a jury probably could, I think the jury is going to have the option where they could find her guilty of a lesser charge. So I think all that will be on the table for her.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: So I assume starting next week, readers of the Democrat Gazette are going to seek coverage from you on a more or less day to day basis as long as the trial is going on.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: Yes.
Jury selection starts Monday, and I think 175 prospective jurors have been summoned to report to jury duty. And it's going to be held in Judge Green's courtroom in the cobin county courthouse. Although Judge Karen is presiding over the trial, his courtroom is too small to get 175 people in there because he's.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: In that courthouse and he's in the court. The county is talking about selling because it's not really suitable.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So he's going to do his portion of jury selection Monday, and after he's finished working jurors, they're going to call jurors in sets of Threes and those people be given time to report back. So then attorneys will start Tuesday morning at 08:00 Tuesday. The prosecutors and the defense attorneys will then start forcing me jurors to select the jury.
[00:07:51] Speaker A: Okay. So they just do kind of interviews of these different sets, ask them some prepared questions.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Well, each side, I think, is going to get about 45 minutes.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: So it's going to be a long process. It may take three to four days to select the jury. It's not something that's going to happen that Tuesday. The jury has to be deaf qualified. So you can't be a person on that jury. You can't go, if she killed someone, she gets it to death penalty. Well, if you believe that, you can't serve on a jury. Okay. You also can't be on the jury and goes, if you kill someone, if she did this, she should get only life. So you have to be able to weigh both options. You just can't have your mind set up already made up based on the.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Evidence that's presented in trial, not on anything.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: As far as your personal opinion about the death penalty.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: If you're against it or whether you are overly in favor of it.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: She still deserves a prior trial.
Of course, prosecutors, they deserve a fraud trial, too.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: Absolutely.
So, yeah, I know that selecting jurors cannot be the most exciting part of a jury trial at all.
So there'd be a few days of that and then the actual trial gets underway.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: Yeah, but this one is different because of the death penalty. In it, a normal trial, they usually portion twelve people at a time, and they select a jury in a matter of a few hours or whatever.
But this time it's going to be very detailed and very long. So if you sit in there, I think they're going to portion five panels each day. So that's like listening to the prosecutors and the defense attorneys say the same thing to five different sets of people. So after a while, it's not that exciting.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
So a lot of people have never been in a courtroom, but you've been covering the courts for years.
I mean, going all the way back to the Benton county daily record.
So what's it like in the courtroom, particularly for a capital murder case?
[00:10:20] Speaker B: I don't know. That's kind of a difficult question to answer.
I don't want to say, of course I enjoy my job.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: But I think doing this job, I've seen the worst of people, the worst acts that people commit. But I've also seen people, some of the most amazing things.
I've seen a father who's lost his son testify, and everyone thinks he's going to have an outburst and maybe attack the person who killed his son. But he forgave his son.
He forgave the killer, which shows you human nature, human side of it.
I also seen a woman, it wasn't a murder case, but it's probably one of the most dragic things I've ever had to sit through, where her attacker raped her, tied her up and bound her, and she ended up losing her limbs. And amazingly, I saw her walk into a courtroom to testify. And it makes you think that. I'm saying this lady led a very active life. And to have something like that happen to her, I think a lot of people would probably wonder, how do I go on living? But she walked into this courtroom and she testified.
I've seen horrible things, and I've also seen things like that.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: I know I've not covered near as many trials as you have, but I've covered some.
And it can be fairly long periods of boredom because of laying foundations for future questions and all that punctuated by real emotion, because you've got families who are watching the trial. Sometimes you've got the defendant, and sometimes the victim is there if they're living. And the tensions sometimes are just really great. So I'm just kind of curious, personal question, as emotional as they can be, do you feel like they may wear on you a little bit because you are having to see some of the really less nice things about life.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: I tell friends and I tell something. The beginning of a trial, I'm excited. I'm very excited. I'm ready to cover it. But somewhere in the middle, it's tiring. It really is tiring. It's a different kind of tiring. Of course, I'm not out there doing physical labor with my job. It's very rare that I work straight eight to 5 hours, but I know Monday I'm going to be working eight to five, basically for five straight days.
I'm going to be on a set schedule. Most times I clock in when things are happening a lot of times. So that's different. But as far as emotional, I think I'm lucky that in some ways I listen and I'm able to put it in a box and set it aside and I kind of could live with it. But of course I have things I do that I've learned that I only have to look at the pictures once.
And I'm not going to going to sit in a courtroom because I know the prosecutors have to show those photos, but I try to sit in the area. I see them once, and then I go sit somewhere where I don't have to see them. I don't really have to sit there and stare at them anymore.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: Yeah, you have to know what they have in them to do your job. But they may ask five different witnesses about them, but you don't have to go through that.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Like, for example, I covered Mauricio terrorist trial three.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: The first time I saw the photos.
The second time I saw the photos, I think the third trial, I probably sat somewhere and I didn't see the photos that entire trial.
I think that helps. I think that probably helps with some of the emotion, not sitting there staring at horrible pictures. And I know this trial here, I haven't seen the video, and I don't know.
You still think about it. Do you really want to see the video?
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: Because I'm not one of those people. Even when something horrible happens in other places and there's video, I don't rush to watch video.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's tough to watch. And it's strange to me that people get entertainment value out of it sometimes, but that's just my editorial opinion.
Well, you do a great job with your coverage, really. I think our readers are well served by you, and I really appreciate you joining us for today's episode of know the news.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: All right, thanks.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Readers should check out Tracy's story about the upcoming trial. This weekend and his ongoing coverage once the trial is underway. We've also got several other stories lined up in this weekend's editions of the northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. A number of auto dealerships over the years have moved from locations along US 71 business and other locations to line Interstate 49. Lydia Fletcher will tell us about those changes.
Stacey Ryburn will tell us about the annual count of residents experiencing homelessness in northwest Arkansas. Organizers have some new funding to help get a clearer picture of the challenges. Al Gaspany interviews the founder of the Arkansas Dyslexia support group about her hopes for the organization's future as it receives revenue off of a new license plate offered by the state of Arkansas.
Doug Thompson will report on how northwest Arkansas has surpassed its allowable levels of ozone for the first time. That doesn't trigger any immediate sanctions, but regional planners say it's something to be concerned about. Campbell Roper looks into medical staffing in northwest Arkansas and the work underway to encourage more people to join the medical profession.
And Tom Sissam details the planned $1.1 million expansion and renovation of the Springdale Public Library. All of that and more this weekend in editions of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. For now, I'm Greg Hartin, and this is the know the news podcast. We will catch you next time.
