A Christian County grand jury will now hear the case of a Hopkinsville man who cut off his ankle monitor earlier this year and failed to show up in Trigg County Circuit Court on the day of his conviction in the murder of Joey Hayes.
James Gentry appeared virtually from the Christian County Jail Monday afternoon for a preliminary hearing before Christian District Judge J. Foster Cotthoff with his defense attorney David Rye and Assistant County Attorney Maureen Leamy appearing in the courtroom.
Gentry is charged in Christian County with tampering with a prisoner monitoring device. When questioned by Leamy, Davis McGregor with the Christian County Alternative Services said he learned Gentry had cut off his ankle monitor when he received a notification the morning of July 27th.
click to download audioAfter hearing the evidence, Judge Cotthoff sent the case to the grand jury.
click to download audioGentry was arrested in California in late October by the U.S. Marshal’s Office after he had been on the run since failing to show up for court in Trigg County Circuit Court for the final day of his murder trial. At the time, Gentry had been released from jail in March after Circuit Court Judge Woody Woodall reduced his cash bond and required him to wear the monitor.
A Trigg County jury needed only 34 minutes to return the guilty verdict and needed half that time to hand down a recommended sentence of life in prison without parole for 25 years against Gentry.
Gentry was arrested shortly after the murder of Hayes, a Christian County resident, whose body was found in a barn off Buffalo Road in eastern Trigg County in November 2018. Police said Hayes had been shot five times.
Gentry is scheduled to be sentenced in Trigg County Circuit Court on the murder and robbery conviction next month.
