WILLIAMSON, W.Va. — A Mingo County jury took less than an hour Monday afternoon to convict Timothy Kennedy on all five criminal counts in the June 2023 shooting death of State Police Sgt. Cory Maynard.
The panel found Kennedy guilty of first degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, one count of armed robbery and one count of disarming a police officer.
The jury then went back to the jury room and few minutes later returned with the decision to grant Kennedy no mercy, which means he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.
Kennedy, 32, shot Mingo County resident Ben Baldwin on the afternoon of June 2 in the Beech Creek area of Mingo County. Sgt. Maynard and other troopers responded. The evidence showed Kennedy ambushed Maynard, shooting him several times.
Kennedy told the jury last week he couldn’t remember what happened. His defense team never denied the shooting during the trial but said Kennedy was high on meth and hallucinating at the time of the encounter with Maynard.
Mingo County Prosecutor Brock Mounts argued in his closing argument Monday that Kennedy shot Maynard three times and ran from police, causing a large manhunt. Mounts said those actions showed malice and also showed Kennedy did not have diminished mental capacity.
Dozens of state police troopers, in uniform, packed the Mingo County courtroom for the reading of the verdict Monday afternoon.
The trial lasted for parts of three weeks.
Sentencing is scheduled for July.