The trial for Shawn M. Kavanagh has been delayed again, this time being set back to November 2022.
Kavanagh was arrested in 2014 after allegedly killing two women and a child south of Jonesburg, …
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The trial for Shawn M. Kavanagh has been delayed again, this time being set back to November 2022.
Kavanagh was arrested in 2014 after allegedly killing two women and a child south of Jonesburg, as well as assaulting a third woman. Every trial date he’s had, going back multiple years, has been canceled for various reasons. His most recent trial scheduling was for two weeks in July, but Kavanagh’s public defender attorneys requested the trial be delayed because one of them is pregnant and due in August.
In April, Judge Rebeca Navarro-McKelvey, the St. Charles County judge currently overseeing the case, ordered attorneys to submit available dates for a trial in late 2022. Last week she set the trial for three weeks beginning Nov. 1, 2022, and ending Nov. 19.
When requesting a new trial date, defense attorneys said they were overly optimistic to hope that medical considerations related to pregnancy wouldn’t interfere with the trial. A doctor’s advice changed their minds.
Because prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Kavanagh, the court has maintained a standard of two attorneys being present to defend him at trial. Issues within the Missouri Public Defender’s office have caused numerous delays because of this.
Kavanagh is accused in the stabbing deaths of Tara Lynn Fifer, 22, of Montgomery City, Lexy Vandiver, 29, and her son, Mason Vandiver, 7, both of Jonesburg. He also is accused of severely wounding his estranged wife, Jessica N. Powell.
