By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
For the two unrelated murder cases in Barren Circuit Court on Monday, one trial was taken off the future docket – for now – but another was added.
Defendants Aaron Rodriguez and James Edward Campbell each had their turn at the bench with Circuit Judge John T. Alexander.
Rodriguez, now 26, is accused of fatally shooting Melissa Miller, 54, outside her Glasgow home in May 2021. He allegedly came to Glasgow on the premise that he – under a false name – was going to buy electronic equipment that had been posted for sale on Facebook by Miller’s grandson. Rodriguez is accused of firing a gun at Miller from the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by a female. Miller was transported to T.J. Samson Community Hospital, where she was pronounced deceased, according to the criminal complaint in the case.
Commonwealth’s Attorney John Gardner has filed a notice that he intends to prosecute the case with the death penalty as an option, and defense attorney Wesley Boyarski said at Rogdriguez’ last pretrial conference, in September, that if it is determined that the defendant suffers from a serious mental illness, it would preclude the death penalty. Gardner said at the time that the statute in question says the defendant has to have a documented history and diagnosis, plus he has to have had active symptoms of the mental illness at the time of the incident.
That September proceeding centered around getting a mental-health evaluation requested by the commonwealth ordered and scheduled, but it was noted that it could be several months before the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center would be able to get that done. While there, he is also to be evaluated for his competency to stand trial.
The defense team has already had an evaluation done with their own expert, but that person had only provided an oral report of his findings, which included a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, a type of mood disorder, according to the attorneys’ exchange in September. The commonwealth has asked for a copy of that written report once it is available and all the supporting documentation provided to that expert that may have been used to reach conclusions.
Monday, Gardner said that one lingering issue was the provision of those materials from the defense, but he said that he has agreed to give them until Jan. 8 for them to get him those copies.
“And we also agreed to mediate this case,” he said.
He said he believed the court had been notified of this by one of the other defense attorneys, Zanda Myers and asked whether an order for mediation had been done yet.
Alexander said he thought it had been but he didn’t see it in the file, so he would check and make sure it got done if it hasn’t been already.
The mediation would use a third party, retired Circuit Judge Phillip Patton, who also still works as a special senior judge in cases where there are conflicts of interest with the usual judge, to work with both sides to see whether they can reach an agreement that would resolve the case.
Gardner then brought up the trial, which had been set to begin Jan. 30 and go for multiple weeks. He said he believed Boyarski had been in touch with KCPC about the scheduling of an evaluation, and Boyarski said she had spoken with someone at the facility Sept. 30, and they had received the order for the evaluation three days prior to that, but it still would be 12 to 15 months before they could get to him.
“So, with that being said, I think that we are not going to make our trial date, your honor,” she said.
Alexander asked whether they wanted to go ahead and schedule new dates or wait.
Gardner said he thought they should wait until after the mediation, and when they were discussing whether to try that, the defense said they couldn’t be ready for that until early next year. Boyarski said it would be February. Gardner suggested setting a pretrial conference in March, which Boyarski said would probably be a good idea.
The opposing attorneys, somewhat talking at the same time, said that by March, they could know whether they had reached an agreement or needed to set new trial dates.
Alexander expressed concern that if it’s that long before they set dates, they would probably be looking at a year out from that point, so they shouldn’t wait much longer than that. He proposed a March 4 pretrial conference and said that if for some reason the mediation was delayed a bit, they could change that date.
Campbell
Campbell, 46, is accused of fatally shooting Roger L. Noland, 35, of Scottsville on Feb. 10 following an alleged confrontation in the parking lot outside Campbell’s residence in Glasgow.
In addition to his murder charge, Campbell is facing two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment due to the allegation that two other people were in Noland’s vicinity when the shots were fired. Noland was transported after the incident to T.J. Samson Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
At his last pretrial conference, the attorneys indicated they’d had conversations about trying to reach a resolution but hadn’t at that point, but they thought they would know by this date whether they believed an agreement possible or whether a trial date should be set.
On Monday, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Resa Gardner said the commonwealth has provided all required evidence to defense attorney Johnny Bell, but he had some questions about some of it that she would need to look into and she believed he intended to file some motions.
“What I would like to do is get another pretrial date but also look at getting trial dates, since I know 2024 is starting to fill up,” she said.
She added that she didn’t know how long Bell would need to get his motions filed, but she would need time to respond to them, and perhaps they could set the pretrial conference for a date around that time, and they could go from there if they needed to set a hearing date for any of the motions.
Bell said he would be ready to move forward on at least one motion fairly quickly, but on some questions they have about the evidence, he may need to consult an attorney. He said they were also requesting any information from two phones that he thought perhaps had not yet been “dumped,” meaning he didn’t think data from them had been downloaded. He had some phone numbers his client, Campbell, had provided that didn’t seem to be showing up on the records they had so far, he said.
“We’re also requesting a criminal history. I don’t know if the commonwealth is going to want to give that up to us or we’ll have to have a hearing on that,” Bell said.
Resa Gardner said that to her knowledge and based on what she has reviewed, everything in possession of the Glasgow Police Department had been dumped and provided to Bell, but she would look to make sure there wasn’t something missed.
Alexander asked whether they thought four days would be sufficient for the trial, and after discussion of a few different dates and attorneys’ checking their schedules, the trial was set for the first week of September, with the next pretrial conference set for Dec. 11, at which point they expect to determine whether any hearings are necessary for the motions Bell intends to file in the interim.
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