BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — The man accused of shooting and killing Blount County Sheriff’s Deputy Greg McCowan appeared in court on Tuesday for a preliminary hearing. The case was bound over to a grand jury.
Kenneth Wayne DeHart has been 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 McCowan dead and another deputy injured on February 8. The other deputy, identified as Shelby Eggers, was treated at UT Medical Center and released.
The preliminary hearing began with the public defender appointed to DeHart asking the judge to allow DeHart more time to hire an attorney. The motion to continue was denied and the hearing moved forward.
During the preliminary hearing, Eggers was called to the stand. In her testimony, she went over her history with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office and what happened during the traffic stop in the 4900 block of Sevierville Road on Thursday, Feb. 8.
The state then played the bodycam and dash camera footage from the incident. Next, the defense questioned Eggers about the traffic stop.
“I observed go all the way left of the center line to where the driver side the front tire was almost touch the white fault line on the opposite side of the road,” Eggers said during her testimony.
While explaining the stop, Eggers explained that when she opened the door as the taser was deployed and when she went to grab DeHart’s seatbelt, she got wrapped in the wires and was tased as well.
Eggers told the court that seconds after she moved back from the car, the shooting happened
“I fell to the ground immediately and everything kind of moved in slow motion. I couldn’t get myself up and I took a breath, and I accepted death because I thought he was going to fire at me again. He had an advantage over me, he could’ve shot me in the back of the head. I thought he was going to kill me,” Eggers said.
She continued in her testimony, saying, “I fired three rounds from my service weapon. He turned right onto Sevierville Road and I still had my gun out but I knew I couldn’t shoot anymore because I had a line of cars and I didn’t want to put anyone in danger.”
Eggers was on the stand more than an hour, including when the body camera and dashcam video were shown.
The prosecution then called Maria Cutshaw, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent in charge of the investigation, to the stand. Cutshaw was one of several agents called to the scene following the shooting. In her testimony, she explained some of what the TBI had discovered during its investigation. The descriptions included what evidence the TBI had found and where Deputy McCowan was shot.
“There was one on his right side, on his right side but if you were looking at him it would have been on the right side of his nipple, and then there was one on his left lower abdomen,” Cutshaw explained.
After the defense completed their cross examination of Cutshaw, the prosecution gave their argument for the case to be bound over to the grand jury. The defense questioned the state’s “premeditation theory,” adding that “clearly it was killing without any justification, there’s not any doubt about that.”
“The question is ‘Did this man plan it ahead of time?'” One of the defense attorneys said.
The attorney asked for the first degree murder charge to be bound over as a second degree murder charge.
The judge ruled that the case would be bound over to a grand jury with the charges of first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, and felon in possession of a weapon.
DeHart was captured at a home in Knoxville after a nearly five-day-long search. Security video of the event shows DeHart exiting the home through a back door after loud bangs are heard.
DeHart was arraigned at the Blount County Justice Center on Feb. 15. He stood before the judge for one minute and two seconds as the judge read his charges and set the date for the preliminary hearing.
Dehart’s brother, Marcus Dehart, and his girlfriend, Carrie Matthews, were charged with accessory after the fact in connection to the case. Marcus’s next court date is set for May 20, and Matthews’s next court date is set for March 15. Maurice Donnell Warren has also been accused of helping DeHart and charged with felony accessory after the fact. His preliminary hearing has been set for March 5.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated with additional information from the preliminary hearing.