The man convicted in the murder of Jessica Currin, who was found beaten and burned behind Mayfield Middle School in 2000, has waited decades for another shot at freedom. Now, after a ruling Wednesday denied him a new trial, Quincy Cross will have to wait even longer.
After a week of deliberation, Graves Circuit Court Judge Tyler Gill ruled that he would not grant Cross – who has maintained his innocence since being convicted of killing Currin, among other charges, in 2008 – a new trial following the three-day evidentiary hearing that was held late last year.
Attorneys for the Kentucky Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project – organizations that serve people they believe have been wrongfully convicted – argued on Cross’s behalf during the hearing, calling on multiple principal witnesses from his 2008 trial who recanted their original testimonies. Some of those witnesses alleged that they were threatened by members of law enforcement who wanted them to implicate Cross in Currin’s murder.
To reach his decision, Gill considered the legal briefs filed by Cross’s attorneys in February and by the state prosecutors – Kentucky Assistant Attorneys General Barbara Maines Whaley, Todd Ferguson and Richie Kemp – just over a week ago, in addition to testimony from the evidentiary hearing and prior court records.
"The Court determined many issues in the Motion [to grant a new trial] to be without merit because the issues either did not constitute admissible evidence, lacked relevance, did not constitute newly discovered evidence, or were matters that would not likely have changed the result of the [original] trial," Gill’s order reads.
During the evidentiary hearing in November and December of last year, three witnesses – Vinisha Stubblefield, Shamicia Powell and Latoya “Patrice” Senter – admitted to giving false testimony in the original 2008 trial. Each did so after receiving legal counsel that they could face perjury charges and potentially incarceration for those admissions.
The commonwealth argued the evidence provided did not overcome the legal precedent that mandates recantations of testimony be “viewed with suspicion” by courts.
Gill wrote in his decision that he doubted the veracity of the recanted testimonies. He also said he believes it’s unlikely that “multiple professional investigators from different agencies and attorneys would engage in an illegal and pernicious scheme to force multiple witnesses to adopt a detailed set of lies calculated to frame an innocent man for murder,” but he didn’t close the door on Cross’s defense.
“Why would multiple witnesses recant their testimony and risk prosecution for perjury if the recanted version is not true?” he wrote. “Ultimately, the mystery of the recantations is one the Court cannot solve with the current state of evidence.”
In his decision, Gill said that – while Cross’s defense hadn’t met the burden of proof – the motion from KIP and EP attorneys on his behalf asking for a new trial was not a “frivolous” one.
“[The] post-evidentiary hearing brief argues that various facts raise ‘doubt’ about his guilt and urges the court to look at the totality of circumstances that create doubt about the conviction. Assembling facts that suggest doubt about the conviction is not part of the process of deciding this motion,” the judge wrote. “The analysis required by law cannot turn on what is possible. Anything is possible. Ruling on this motion turns upon proof of what is likely.”
After Gill’s ruling – which fell on the 18-year anniversary of Cross’s 2008 conviction – was issued, the Kentucky Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project announced their intent Wednesday to appeal the decision.
“The Court’s decision is not justice for Cross, nor for his community, supporters, or for the Currin family. The real perpetrator has still not been apprehended or prosecuted,” the statement reads. “This is not the end of the fight for Cross, as KIP and EP will be filing an appeal with the Kentucky Court of Appeals and will continue to work to prove Cross’s innocence.”
