A veteran criminal made a rookie mistake, bragging on a monitored jail phone in Oldham County about how he had murdered before and would do what it took to stop a female witness from testifying against him.
Kendall Shaw, 41, who faced federal gun and drug charges, told two friends during phone calls: "If she don't come to court, they ain't got no case. They got to release me."
His own words ultimately landed him more years in prison.
Shaw initially wrote a letter from jail asking the judge for a speedy trial. He told friends during calls from the Oldham County Detention Center that if the female witness didn't testify, he reasoned he could be free in 70 days, apparently betting on an acquittal. One of his friends told him to find out the court date so they could make sure the witness didn't make it to court.
One of his two friends on the other line warned Shaw: "Don't say anything incriminating."
Yet Shaw boasted how he outwitted police: "Listen, I'm not calling from my line, I'm calling from someone else's line so they can't trace it back to me," referring to a personalized account number inmates must use when making a call.
Using another inmate's number is a tactic used for decades and police are accustomed to sorting it out. In this case, an FBI agent listened to the calls and used Shaw's words in February to tack on charges of tampering with a witness.
Investigators had other evidence against Shaw, including three controlled buys, where police used a hidden camera to video as a criminal informant bought drugs on two different dates from Shaw inside Shaw's Louisville home and once from Shaw's car in July 2023. Agents also searched Shaw's home, finding several guns. As a convicted felon, Shaw can't legally own a firearm.
A federal grand jury indicted Shaw on drug and gun charges Aug. 16, 2023. Days later, FBI agents teamed with police to swarm Shaw's house to try and arrest him. Shaw got away before police entered his home and remained on the run for nearly two months.
Police arrested him at a Bullitt County home in October.
In February, a grand jury returned a second indictment that included the witness tampering charge.
Shaw pleaded guilty in May.
A judge in Louisville sentenced Shaw in July to 29 years and two months in a federal prison, where parole is not an option, for witness tampering, trafficking methamphetamine and gun charges.
Prosecutors argued Shaw's latest crime and his criminal history − dating back more than 20 years − merited an even longer sentence of 37 years and three months, according to the government's sentencing memo.
"The defendant's history and current actions show his disregard for the safety of others, most disturbingly, children; and a propensity to keep witnesses from testifying against him," prosecutors wrote in their memo.
Shaw's attorney, C. Fred Partin, filed a sentencing memo calling the government's recommendation tantamount to a life sentence. Shaw did get credit for accepting responsibility and saving the government the expense of a trial.
Partin confirmed to the Courier Journal that he expressed his frustration during Shaw's sentence hearing, saying in his more than 50 years of practicing law, he never saw a defendant self-destruct the way Shaw did by making the recorded calls.
During the phone calls, Shaw claimed he was the first Louisville suspect featured on the true crime television show "First 48," which followed along as detectives rushed during the first 48 hours after a crime, often a homicide, to make an arrest.
Shaw had been charged with the Jefferson County murder of Phillip DeBarry in November 2008, court records show. He pleaded guilty to state charges in 2010 after the murder charge was reduced to second-degree manslaughter. He also pleaded guilty to felony gun possession and evidence tampering for hiding a gun in a closet and flushing shell casings down the toilet.
Only a few months after his release in 2014, prosecutors say Shaw set a mattress on fire inside an apartment to silence a woman during a domestic dispute even though his 13-year-old daughter and two other girls, ages 5 and 7, also were in the home.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Convicted Louisville drug dealer's attempt to sway witness backfires
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