Motion claims Kenneth DeHart was denied right to counsel, seeks to redo preliminary hearing

MARYVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A motion filed by Kenneth DeHart ‘s legal team on Sept. 13 is seeking to redo his preliminary hearing and allow DeHart to retain his private counsel instead of a public defender. The motion claims that DeHart was denied his constitutional right to counsel.

DeHart was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and felon in possession of a weapon in relation to a shooting in the 4900 block of Sevierville Road that left Blount County Sheriff’s Deputy Greg McCowan dead and Deputy Shelby Eggers injured on February 8. Following the shooting, DeHart was arrested at a home in Knoxville on Feb. 13 . He was then arraigned on Feb. 15 and his preliminary hearing was held on Feb. 20.

During the preliminary hearing, the public defender appointed to DeHart asked the judge to allow DeHart more time to hire an attorney. This request was denied and the hearing moved forward. The motion requests that the court remand DeHart’s case for a preliminary hearing where he is “afforded his constitutional right to be represented by his counsel of choice” and the new counsel can fix missed opportunities to ask for bail and challenge the state’s evidence.

The motion goes on to say that because DeHart’s preliminary hearing took place within days of his initial appearance he was unable to retain his counsel of choice. The document also claims that the lawyers assigned to DeHart did the following actions during the preliminary hearing:

• Did not seek to suppress “unconstitutionally obtained evidence”,
• Improperly conceded that the state outright met its burden to bind over two of the three charges and, for the most serious charge of premeditated murder, claimed there was “not any doubt” it was a killing “without any justification”
• Commended a state witness’s actions during the traffic stop for DeHart’s alleged driving infraction as “very well” handled,
• Wrongly identified the number of times the Taser was used as two rather than four times and did not bring to the court’s attention that the gunshots began while the Taser was being used against DeHart for the fourth time
• Failed to seek DeHart’s pretrial release

The motion ends by asking the court to send the case back to a preliminary hearing “to cure the structural constitutional error of preventing his representation by counsel of choice”
and for the State to be required to file a written response.

DeHart was indicted on the charges by a grand jury in April. On Sept. 13, the State of Tennessee also filed new court documents to pursue the death penalty and life without the possibility of parole in this case.

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