BENTONVILLE — “Don’t do it! Don’t do it! Don’t do it!”
Those were Pea Ridge police officer Kevin Apple’s final words before being dragged to his death after getting hit by a Jeep driven by Shawna Cash.
Brian Stamps, then a Pea Ridge police officer, described those moments Monday at Cash’s murder trial. Stamps no longer works for the department.
Cash, 25, of Pine Bluff, is charged with capital murder, fleeing, two counts of aggravated assault and obstructing governmental operations. She pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Cash is accused of killing Apple in 2021.
Cash’s defense attorneys are not disputing Cash was driving the vehicle but argue she did not intentionally kill Apple. She was only trying to get away from police, they claim.
Apple and Stamps heard a dispatch about 11:30 a.m. June 26, 2021, to be on the lookout for a Jeep fleeing from Rogers police. They spotted the Jeep at the White Oak Station in Pea Ridge, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Stamps testified he approached the Jeep from the rear, and Apple approached from the front. Cash put the Jeep in reverse and crashed into his patrol vehicle, Stamps said. He heard Apple yell three warnings to the driver. He also heard the Jeep’s engine revving and the tires grinding against the concrete, Stamps said.
He did not see Apple, but saw the Jeep swerve right and hit Apple’s patrol vehicle and then speed away from the store.
Stamps told jurors he wondered about Apple’s whereabouts since he could not see him. When the Jeep was about 20 feet away, he noticed a dark figure under the vehicle.
“That was the moment I saw Officer Apple,” Stamps said.
Stamps testified there was no need for him to fire his weapon before he saw Apple.
“When I saw the dark figure, I knew it was him, and I made the decision to shoot,” he said. “I needed to stop the vehicle.”
Prosecutors showed photos of bullet holes in the Jeep. Nobody in the vehicle was hit by the gunfire.
The four shots were the only time Stamps had fired his weapon in the line of duty.
He fired the fourth shot and saw Apple’s body being dislodged from under the Jeep. He said Cash no longer mattered to him. He only wanted to get to Apple.
A man at the scene told him not to worry and for him to go after the fleeing Jeep, but Stamps said he had to stay with Apple. Stamps and Apple were the only two police officers at the scene.
Kayla Moore of Pea Ridge testified she heard the gunshots. She and her husband were at the nearby Sonic and saw a dark vehicle “squealing” down the road.
Moore said she ran toward a police officer standing and then saw another officer on the ground. Moore worked in the medical field in the military.
She said Apple was having “death breaths,” which are short and gasping. She said Apple’s eyes were not moving, and she could see his head wound, but there was very little blood coming from the injury.
“I told him he was not alone,” Moore said. “All I wanted him to know was he was not alone when he took his last breath.”
Oscar Olvera described the incident that led Rogers police to issue an alert for the Jeep.
Olvera of Rogers said his wife told him someone had stolen mail from their mailbox. He checked and noticed a check he had put in the box was missing. He said he then pursued the vehicle and stopped it at the Walgreens on Walnut Street.
He said a woman — Cash — was holding the check out for him, and he noticed a man in the passenger seat moving around, so he pulled his gun and ordered the two out of the vehicle and onto the ground.
Olvera said he called police. Cash and her passenger heard the approaching sirens, jumped in the Jeep and fled.
Robert Griggs, a Rogers police officer, and Samuel Mosely, a Rogers police detective, testified about chasing the fleeing Jeep but ending the pursuit out of safety concerns.
Prosecutors showed dash camera video from Griggs’ and Mosley’s vehicles.
It wasn’t the only evidence prosecutors presented of Cash’s history of fleeing from police.
Jake Stein, a Coffeyville, Kan., police officer, also testified about a July 27, 2020, police pursuit involving Cash and another man when he worked for the Farmington Police Department. Stein described Cash’s driving as erratic in the chase and told jurors she was driving at a high rate of speed.
“It was July, and they were kicking up sand in a turn lane,” Stein said.
He said he hit speeds of more than 90 mph and could not catch the fleeing car.
Anthony Phoumsengkeo testified he’s on parole for selling drugs. He said he and Cash went in a Dodge Challenger to a car wash in Farmington in July 2020. He said he drove to the car wash.
He testified they saw a police officer at the car wash, and Cash told him to get in the car and she drove away toward Fayetteville, and the officer pursued them.
Phoumsengkeo testified a few months later he was driving his car and was stopped by Fayetteville police. He said Cash was with him and she tried to flee on foot from police but was caught.
Prosecutors’ attention then returned to the scene of the Pea Ridge crime.
Sgt. Keshia Millsap, a detective with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, testified they walked the tire tracks from the Pea Ridge police cars to Apple’s body and found Apple’s clothing, handcuffs and other law enforcement equipment. It was 149 feet from Apple’s body to his car, she said.
Prosecutors showed the jury drone video of the crime scene. A U.S. flag covered Apple’s body.
Millsap removed Apple’s uniform, gun and his other equipment from bags or boxes and showed the items to jurors as she was being questioned by Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Robinson.
Testimony in the trial will continue today.
Robinson told Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren prosecutors could rest their case Tuesday.
Elijah Andazola, 20, of Bentonville is charged with accomplice to capital murder and escape. He was a passenger in the Jeep.
Prosecutors have waived the death penalty in his case. Andazola’s jury trial is scheduled to begin March 5 in Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green’s courtroom.
Shawna Cash