Double-murder suspect Anthony Gaines appeared in Christian Circuit Court on Wednesday where a trial date was set in 2025 and the defense and prosecution disputed the existence of pieces of evidence.
Gaines was arrested in connection to the 2021 shooting deaths of Kierra Wallace and George Gomez near Peach Street. He is facing two murder charges, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, tampering with physical evidence and four charges of first-degree wanton endangerment.
Gaines is represented by Brandi Jones and Michael Colman while Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys Grege Cortese and Mark Gilbert are prosecuting the case.
In court, Circuit Judge Andrew Self asked the defense and prosecution if they would be ready to set a trial date. Jones says she is not comfortable setting a trial date because the commonwealth has yet to give them evidence that she and Colman requested in January.
Jones says there are three pieces of evidence she needs including body camera logs and a recording of the 911 call in order to proceed. Commonwealth’s Attorney Maureen Leamy and Gilbert said that the evidence may not exist, however Jones says some of the evidence has been confirmed to exist by Hopkinsville Police Chief Jason Newby.
In response to the evidence issues, Self signed an order for the commonwealth to provide a written response to the defense by June 21 regarding the desired pieces of evidence.
Self set a trial date for July 14, 2025 and Gaines will reappear in court on August 7 for a pretrial conference.