Shaw files appeal of first degree murder conviction

Ed Lewis, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
·2 min read

Mar. 7—As expected, Anthony Dion Shaw filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Superior Court of being convicted of first-degree murder and subsequent sentence of life in prison with no parole.

Shaw, 47, through his attorney, David W. Lampman II, filed notice of the appeal a day after Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough convicted him in the fatal stabbing of his estranged girlfriend, Cindy Lou Ashton, 39, in May 2018.

The appeal was filed with the Superior Court on Tuesday.

Vough ordered Lampman to submit reasons for the appeal within 30 days.

By his choice, Shaw wanted a non-jury trial that lasted two days with Vough rendering his verdict on Feb. 28.

County detectives and Wilkes-Barre Township police charged Shaw with fatally stabbing Ashton inside her Nicholson Street apartment. Her body was found during a welfare check by police on May 2, 2018.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Gary Ross testified Ashton sustained at least 27 stab wounds to her head, neck and hands that were consisted with defensive wounds.

First Assistant District Attorney Anthony Ross and assistant district attorneys Brian Coleman and Gerry Scott produced surveillance footage of Shaw purchasing a Gerber folding knife at the now-closed Kmart at Blackman Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township.

The folding knife was recovered from Shaw's apartment, including a hand-written letter by Shaw apologizing to Ashton's family, inside his East Orange, N.J., apartment by East Orange police conducting a welfare check on him May 4, 2018.

A forensic scientist who works at the Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Laboratory testified the knife contained DNA evidence from Ashton and Shaw.

Throughout the trial, Lampman maintained a "continuing objection" of evidence found in Shaw's apartment from being used by prosecutors.

Vough had prohibited prosecutors from using the evidence as he opined East Orange police entered Shaw's apartment without a search warrant despite conducting a welfare check.

Vough reversed his ruling, based on instructions from the Pennsylvania Superior Court, later finding investigators would have recovered the evidence through the course of the investigation, known as the inevitable discovery doctrine.