Evidence allowed in insurance agent’smurder
The defense’s attempt to bar evidence in the case in which a Kettering insurance agentwas killedwas denied by a judge, and a trial date is set for the beginning of the new year.
Joshua Dehart, 38, is charged in Montgomery CountyCommonPleasCourt withmurder, aggravatedburglary and felonious assault. He is charged in the death of 74-year- old Barton Wilson. Wilson died in March of blunt force trauma due to multiplewounds to the back
of the head, according to Mon t - gomery County Coroner Dr. KentHarshbarger. His death was ruled a
homicide.
Police said Dehart was a former tenant of Wilson’s and previously worked as a maintenance man for him. Wilson owned rental properties.
Dehart has pleaded not guilty in the case.
In a motion to suppress evidence filed in the case, Dehart, through his attorney, asked the court to bar the use of statements Dehart made to the police and any and all evidence seized from his residence.
An argument made in the motionwas that Dehartwas questioned once on April 14 andagainonApril 15, according to JudgeMaryHuffman’s ruling. Dehart was advised of hisMiranda rights before theApril 14 interview but not during theApril 15 interview. One of the questions Huffmanwasaskedtoanswerwas whether Dehart’swaiver or right son April 14 had gone stale by the time of the second interview.
The judge ruled they didn’t.
“The court finds that Mr. Dehartwas in custody at the time he made statements to detectives on both April 14 and April 15, 2020,” the judgewrote. “The court further finds that the state has proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Dehart was advised of his Miranda rights during the interview with the detectives and that he understood those rights by acknowledging so verbally and in writing to the detectives. Additionally, the court finds that, basedonthe totality of the circumstances, Dehart knowingly, intelligentlyandvoluntarilywaived his Miranda rights. There is no evidence before the court that Dehartwas naive, inexperienced, or lacked an understanding of his rights that had been read to him by the detective.”
Courts have found that a lapse of more than 30 hours between the initial Miranda warnings and a second interview does not render the warnings stale, the judge wrote.
“The interviewonApril 14 began shortly before 8 p.m.; less than 24 hours later the second interview began,” the judge wrote in her ruling. “The same detectives conducted both interviews: Det. (Vincent) Mason administered the Miranda warnings in the first interview and was present during both interviews. Dehartwas continually in custody fromthe time he was interviewed the first time through the second interview.”
Dehart was due in court for a pre-trial hearing this week and is due in court again Jan. 5 for a second pretrial hearing. A trial date has been set for Jan. 11.