By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
New trial dates have been set for a Barren County murder case.
James Edward Campbell, now 48, is accused of killing 35-year-old Roger Noland of Scottsville in February 2023.
The case had been scheduled for trial in September 2024 after an attempt at mediation was unsuccessful, but those dates were cancelled after a gun was found a year after the alleged crime occurred, and it became clear that analysis of the weapon would not be finished in time. This gun in question is different from the one believed to have been used to shoot Noland, which had already been in evidence. The weapon found in mid-March 2025 was in the general vicinity of where the shooting took place but at the opposite end of the parking lot under a storage shed, prosecutors have told Glasgow News 1.
Noland was pronounced deceased at T.J. Samson Community Hospital after being transported there – less than a mile away from where the shooting occurred outside the apartment where Campbell was living – by ambulance.
Noland and his fiancee, Felicia Nelson, with whom Campbell has two children, had come to Glasgow to bring Campbell and Nelson’s children to visit with their father. Those children were inside the apartment, and Noland, Nelson and a male child were in a vehicle about to leave when a verbal dispute began that led to a confrontation outside the vehicle and, ultimately, Noland’s death. Campbell also faces two counts of wanton endangerment due to the proximity of Nelson and her son to the situation when the shooting took place.
According to previous court testimony, after Noland was injured, he returned to the vehicle and was throwing things.
In Barren Circuit Court on Monday, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Resa Gardner told Circuit Judge John T. Alexander that reports have been received for DNA testing as well as the fingerprint results from the gun itself, but fingerprint analysis remains to be done on the magazine that was in the gun.
Campbell appeared to nod in the affirmative with his face showing a hint of relief as she was saying this.
Gardner said she expects the lab to tell them it will be another six months to a year for that result, but she was hoping to be able to get it sooner and would try to get it expedited.
Campbell dropped his head forward in apparent disappointment at the prospect of that timeframe.
Meanwhile, Gardner continued, she thought they were prepared to get new trial dates set. Alexander said having dates set may help with the expedition of the lab result.
Defense attorney Johnny Bell suggested January or February for the trial, and after further discussion among the judge and attorneys, Feb. 3-6 were the dates scheduled.
The next pretrial conference is set for Dec. 1.
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