Defense rests case in Shawna Cash sentencing hearing
BENTONVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/FOX24) — The defense rested its case in the sentencing hearing for Shawna Cash on Monday.
Last Thursday, the jury found Cash guilty of capital murder for the death of Pea Ridge officer Kevin Apple. The defense has spent the time since calling witnesses to shed light on Cash’s troubled childhood.
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Those convicted of capital murder face a punishment of either life in prison or the death penalty. The prosecution has said it is seeking the death penalty, but it is up to the jury to give a recommendation to Judge Brad Karren about her fate.
Court was supposed to start at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, but it was delayed until noon because of the snow in the morning.
As a warning for any readers, this article discusses suicide and physical abuse.
Monday began by hearing from Tristan Smith. He is Amber Smith’s son, who testified on Friday about Cash being like a daughter to her.
Smith is currently an inmate at the Delta Regional Unit with the Arkansas Department of Corrections. He is serving time for several felony convictions, including battery, aggravated assault, theft of property and terroristic threatening.
He appeared in court in a white and black striped jumpsuit and his hands and feet were restrained. He grinned at Cash as he walked in and sat down at the witness stand.
He remembered meeting Cash when he was 12 and Cash was 15. He had a smile on his face as he remembered seeing a smiling girl with blond hair and blue eyes at Roller City in Springdale. He remembered her being so beautiful that he felt nervous going up and talking to her.
He said he did eventually talk with her and that he lied about his age to seem older. They eventually met up at a Springdale High School football game.
He said he was struggling with his mental health and was contemplating suicide. He said he was standing by the road and was thinking about jumping in front of a car to take his life when Cash tackled him.
He had a bit of a chuckle as he remembered her “laying me out.”
He said they continued to hang out frequently and had developed a romantic relationship. One day, Cash’s mom, Karen, brought Cash to his grandparents’ house where he lived with his mother and younger siblings. Karen was moving out of state and Cash didn’t want to go with her. Karen wanted to know if Cash could stay with Smith and his family.
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Smith said he talked his grandparents and mom into saying yes. Eventually, Cash found out that Smith was younger than him because he got in trouble at his middle school and Cash went with his mom to pick him up.
The defense brought up the photo of him and Cash when they were teens that had been introduced into evidence when Amanda Smith was on the stand. Tristan smiled at it when he saw it.
He confirmed that Cash lived with his family for three years. During that time, when he was about 14 years old, he started doing meth. He said Cash felt left out and soon started doing meth as well.
He remembered setting up a line for her to snort for the first time. He said she had only done weed before this point to his knowledge. He said she became hooked on meth eventually.
Cash eventually moved out. However, he remembered a few months later when he called Cash to break the news to her that his grandparents had committed suicide. He said that Cash had developed a relationship with his grandparents, especially his grandmother, in the time she stayed with them.
He said Cash came over and comforted him a lot during this time.
When the defense asked him if he was still in love with Cash, he shook his head and said no, but that he did “love her like family.”
The state had some questions for Smith. Officer Kevin Apple had arrested Smith at one time. Smith said he believed this was true, but that his memory was kind of fuzzy because of all the drugs he’s taken in his life.
He also confirmed that he and Cash started having a sexual relationship about eight months after meeting while he was still 12 years old.
He confirmed that Karen did not kick Cash out and that she voluntarily wanted to live with the Smith family.
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Amanda Smith testified on Friday that she had used drugs in her life, but was sober during the time Cash lived with them. She said after her parents committed suicide, she eventually relapsed and even went to federal prison for trying to bring cocaine from Mexico into the U.S. She said she currently is clean and has a good job.
The state asked Tristan about this order of events and he confirmed that his mother was not using drugs while Cash lived with them.
Tristan told the jury he never forced Cash to use meth and said that she felt left out from their friend group which is why she wanted to start using the drug.
While he said he didn’t want to be in the courtroom testifying, he said that Cash had saved his life when she tackled him at the Springdale football game and stopped him from committing suicide. Now he feels this is his chance to save her life.
The defense next called Carrie Thompson to the stand. She works as a paralegal for Cash’s defense attorney Katherine Streett and said she maintains the records and files they get for the clients they represent. She confirmed many documents for the jury regarding Cash’s childhood.
The documents included dental records, school health reports, school grade reports, Medicaid referral forms, therapy reports, police reports and others.
Some of the school records detailed more about the irritable bowel syndrome issues Cash dealt with in elementary school. Another confirmed when Cash had to spend four days in the hospital when she was about seven years old. She suffered from abdominal pain, constipation, fever and presumed E. Coli.
One Medicaid referral form detailed Cash’s older sister, Amber, staying at Lakeland Behavioral Health Hospital in Missouri in 2009. Shawna was 11 years old. These documents give a glimpse into the Cash sibling family life at the time.
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It said that Amber’s mother, Karen, was unable to provide structure or supervision causing the family to be chaotic. It notes Amber’s aggressive and impulsive behavior she had developed that led her to fight with her siblings. It said that she had been physically and verbally abusive to her siblings before.
One therapy progress note details how Michael Cash, the Cash sibling’s father, had kidnapped them when they were visiting him in Arizona and that Michael threatened to shoot their mother if she tried to come and get them back.
Amber tells her therapist that she has had a lot of men in her life try to be father figures, several of whom had abused her. She said her mother was on an emotional rollercoaster as she dealt with homelessness and ups and downs with her romantic partners.
She talked about her family’s instability and the toll it took on her stress levels. Karen also missed several family therapy sessions with Amber and wasn’t able to be reached.
By the time Amber was released from this stay at Lakeland Hospital after four months, she was in a much better place and was taking her treatment seriously.
More documents show that Cash stayed at Springwoods Behavioral Health in Fayetteville for six days when she was 14 years old in 2013.
Cash told the therapists how she felt her home life was tumultuous, she felt bullied by her older brother Chris and that there was substance use in the home. She talked about blacking out multiple times when she had periods of anger and not remembering her words or actions.
When Cash was being interviewed by the Benton County Sheriff’s Office after hitting Apple with a car, she talked about how she was prone to blacking out in stressful situations. The detective eventually called her out during the interview, essentially saying blacking out was a bad excuse.
The documents from her stay at Springwoods continue by talking about the mental health problems Cash’s father suffers from, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts and ADHD. The mental status exam described her as disheveled, monotone in voice, fearful, tense, depressed, anxious, worried and sad. It marked her as having ADHD and PTSD.
But throughout her stay there, it also said she was cooperative and calm. She said she smoked weed to deal with the stress of her family. A toxicology report only found weed in her system at this time.
In November 2015, Cash got help from Ozark Guidance in Fayetteville. She had been off her medication at this time and wanted to get back on it. The report from this center said she showed signs of bipolar disorder, ADHD, PTSD and suffered from depression and anxiety. It noted how her family also has a history of these mental health issues and that her “poor genetics” were impacting her.
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She was staying with the Smith family at this time but talked about wanting to return to living with her mom. She said she had concerns about this because her mom was experiencing trouble with homelessness. At Ozarks Guidance, she was also cooperative with her treatments.
The report said she was doing better until around her 18th birthday. That’s when Ozark Guidance had to move her over to adult services. The report said she didn’t show up for treatment so they ended up discharging her in December 2016.
When Cash was being interviewed by BCSO after the death of Apple on June 26, 2021, she told the detective how her ex-fiance had recently committed suicide and she was trying to get to Pine Bluff so she could get her things.
The defense showed the police report from Pine Bluff when officers there found her ex had committed suicide. They found his body on May 28, 2021, but it was evident he had been dead for several days.
Throughout the defense witness testimony, and as numerous legal, health, school and police records and documents were brought in as evidence, Streett had been writing down every address change Cash and her siblings had from when they were minors on a large paper pad.
By the end of it all, Cash had lived at approximately 35 different addresses as a minor under the care of her mother.
The defense called Dr. Kendra Roberts next. She is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who has prescribed multiple medications for Cash since April 2022. The medication she has prescribed Cash helps her mood control, anxiety associated with PTSD, suppressing nightmares as a result of PTSD, anti-depression, insomnia and psychosis.
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The state asked Roberts about the psychosis, and she clarified that this can happen with mood disorders and PTSD. The state wanted to clarify that Cash had never had psychosis before, but Roberts told the prosecution that Cash had had two psychosis episodes while in her care. Both happened in 2022.
When the state asked how someone can diagnose psychosis Roberts said it is partially from what she observes of her patient and partially from what the patient self-reports to her.
Next, Cash’s sister-in-law, Tiffany Cash, took the stand. She told the jury she met Shawna’s older brother, Chris, in 2012. Soon after, she met Chris’ family. Chris and Tiffany, and Shawna and her mother Karen, all lived in the same apartment complex in Springdale.
She remembered Shawna being a shy young teenager who became very clingy to her once she got to know her. She said she saw Shawna every day and became like a big sister to her.
Tiffany told the jury how she had started using meth when she was about 18 years old and eventually used it regularly.
Tiffany remembered when Shawna lived with the Smith family and had concerns at the time that alcohol and drug use was happening in the home. She noticed a change in Shawna while she lived there. She said she told Karen about her concerns, but that she wasn’t concerned. She also said she did meth with Shawna twice.
Tiffany said she got sober about five years ago. She has three kids from a previous marriage and two kids with Chris. She confirmed Chris’ testimony from Friday that they did open their home to Shawna, but that she could only stay with them if she was clean. She said she didn’t want drug use around her kids.
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Streett asked Tiffany if she still loves and cares for Shawna. Tiffany got emotional as she replied that she does.
Finally, the defense called Chris back to the stand. They showed him four mugshots of his sister. Two were from before the 2021 incident, one was from June 2021 and one was taken more recently.
In the first three, you can see Shawna’s face get progressively more gaunt. Chris said she looked worse than her normal appearance in these mugshots. The last one, which shows what she looks like today, shows a healthy-looking, filled-out face.
He told the jury it would hurt very much to lose Shawna and that he loves her.
The defense rested its case. Court will resume on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m.
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