Attorneys for Shawn Kavanagh, the man accused of a triple murder south of Jonesburg in 2014, are once again requesting that his trial date be delayed. He is scheduled to be tried in January 2020 on three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of armed criminal action.Kavanagh, 28, of Bellflower, is accused in the stabbing deaths of Tara Lynn Fifer, 22, of Montgomery City, and Lexy Vandiver, 29, and her son, Mason Vandiver, 7, both of Jonesburg. He also is accused of severely wounding Jessica N. Powell, who had been married to Kavanagh.Warren County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Kavanagh, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges.The capital murder case has been delayed five times already, in part due to numerous difficulties and turnover within the state public defender’s office, which is representing Kavanagh. The trial is set for two weeks starting Jan. 7, 2020, in the St. Charles Circuit Court.However, at the beginning of September, defense attorneys sent a letter to the judge overseeing the case, stating that attorney Robert Lundt had unexpectedly announced his retirement later this year due to prolonged illness. On Sept. 20, they formally requested that the trial date be pushed back once again.St. Charles Circuit Judge Ted C. House will consider the request to delay Kavanagh’s murder trial during a hearing Sept. 27 in the St. Charles Court.Attorney Lundt has been the only public defender consistently assigned to Kavanagh’s case since 2014. Multiple co-counsels have been assigned to the case and then departed the public defender’s office before it went to trial.Current co-defense counsel David Kenyon was assigned to the case in November 2018 — the reason for the most recent trial delay. Kenyon said in his letter to the court that he was completely unaware that Lundt intended to retire, and that Lundt would be leaving his position at the end of October.Kenyon said Lundt has been struggling with health issues since suffering from a serious illness in September 2018 — the cause of another previous trial cancellation. Lundt was advised by his doctor to retire and eliminate stress in order to preserve his health, defense attorneys said. He has been with the public defender’s office for 30 years.Kenyon told the court that a new attorney would begin with the public defender’s capital litigation division in October, and would be assigned to Kavanagh’s case. That would leave the attorney two months to review thousands of documents and recordings, and he has not previously worked a death penalty case, Kenyon said.“It is unrealistic to expect any attorney, particularly one who has no capital litigation experience, to be prepared to try a triple-murder death penalty case with 2 1/2 months to prepare,” Kenyon wrote to the court.In addition to getting a new co-counsel, Kenyon said Lundt was the person who interviewed over 40 witnesses who could possibly help prevent the death penalty if Kavanagh is convicted. With Lundt leaving, Kenyon told the court he will have to personally connect with each of those witnesses in order to fully understand their testimony.Kenyon added that his office within the state public defender’s capital litigation division has experienced significant turnover in the past year. The departure of another attorney has left Kenyon without a co-counsel in all but one of his death penalty cases, he said.Besides the trial delay after Kenyon was added to the case, and the prior cancellation because of Lundt’s illness, three other trial dates for Kavanagh have been postponed. One of those was for a change in attorney.

Shawn Kavanagh, shown here after his arrest on Feb. 14, 2014.