With the courts ramping up to tackle a backlog of felony cases that languished due to COVID-19 Court House restrictions, three defendants arrested for crimes against Indian River Shores residents are still awaiting trial.
The oldest is the case of Chiquita LaShae McGee and Sophia Monae Shepherd, arrested in March 2018, both accused of stealing upwards of $50,000 from an elderly John’s Island couple.
They are charged with exploitation of an elderly adult, a first-degree felony, and scheme to defraud a financial institution, a second-degree felony.
McGee is being represented by the Public Defender’s Office. Her trial, which was set for April 26, was postponed and a new trial date has not been set. Judge Dan Vaughn has scheduled a docket call – a court hearing for scheduling case activity – on May 26.
Assistant State Attorney Lev Evans said the pandemic has made it more challenging to gather everyone needed for the trial. “We had a witness from Texas who couldn’t fly here due to COVID-19. There’s a big witness list and it’s tough to get that many people together over the summer,” Evans said, but he noted that the defense attorney is as motivated as he is to move the case to trial. “If I had to give you my best guess I’d say maybe August,” Evans said.
Attorney Robert Stone is defending Shepherd, and that trial seems a bit farther down the road, Evans said. Stone agreed that Shepherd’s trial would likely be one to two months after McGee’s. “And depending upon the outcome of that trial, we might be able to resolve ours with a plea,” Stone said.
Defendants involved in the same crime typically are tried separately when they have made statements about each other, according to Evans.
Stone said McGee and Shepherd have been set for separate trials “all along, but I don’t think there were any real incriminating statements.”
Stone said Shepherd and McGee are relatives and he doesn’t see any reason why one would be compelled to testify against the other, because that might violate their Fifth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, and pave the way for an appeal.
Both defendants are free on bond and have had their pre-trial release conditions loosened to allow for employment, or participation in children’s school activities.
As for the elderly couple, the husband died, and the wife went into a long-term care facility as the case dragged on. Just before the pandemic, prosecutors were trying to move these two cases rapidly toward trial as the law allows for crimes against the elderly, but now it’s unclear whether the remaining alleged victim will see a verdict in her lifetime.
Stone said the standstill in court operations for six months, and the gradual resumption of trials, has been frustrating for people he represents, especially for those incarcerated. As a former, long-time State Attorney himself, Stone said he understands the courts have a massive job ahead to get through the caseload.
“There’s nothing we can do but just to dig in and get them done, one at a time,” Stone said.
The other pending case that got a lot of attention in Indian River Shores involved an extended family gathered together at an oceanfront estate in Bermuda Bay in May 2020.
Two teenage girls were sharing a studio suite with an open bath, and a local man is accused of installing a hidden surveillance camera allegedly placed to capture private images from a teenage girl’s room in what’s still referred to as the “Wackenhut House.”
Lennon Starkweather, 38, allegedly used the access he had to the home through his electronics and home security system business to spy on the teenagers by installing a stealth camera hidden in a cellphone charger box. The girls discovered the device, didn’t recognize it, and looked up the name of the charger on Google to find it was a spy camera.
Indian River County Sheriff’s Office investigators were called in and, according to the arrest report, caught Starkweather when he came to the home and retrieved the camera. He had it in his bag when they stopped him. Starkweather is facing two felony counts of video voyeurism
Indian River Shores Public Safety Capt. Mark Shaw said last week he’d heard Starkweather has been offered a plea deal.
Assistant State Attorney Patrick O’Brien, who is prosecuting the case, confirmed that development, but noted the deal has not been sealed.
“In 99 percent of cases we make a plea offer and in this case a plea offer has been extended. It’s just a matter of whether the defendant chooses to accept it,” O’Brien said.
Plea offers typically come with a deadline, O’Brien said, but the state has yet to limit the time Starkweather has to accept the deal on the table.