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Bail Set for Exford in Lewis County Court with New
Trial Slated for June
Published: February 11, 2025 at 08:30 p.m.
By: Julie Abbass
for linkinglewiscounty.com
Shawn L. Exford enters Lewis County Court on February
11, 2025 for a bail hearing
Lowville, NY – Shawn L. Exford was back in Lewis County Court
today for a bail hearing after his previous conviction from nearly three years ago was recently overturned on appeal.
Mr. Exford is accused of setting fire to a South State Street apartment house on November 30,
2019, that resulted in the deaths of 58-year-old Catherine Crego and 42-year-old
Saratina Kilbourne.
With a number of detectives and deputies from the
county sheriff’s office involved with investigating the case filling the
first two rows behind the District Attorney in an otherwise empty
courtroom, Judge Daniel R. King set bail at $500,000 cash/$1 million bond/$3
million partially secured bond, as requested by District Attorney Jeffrey
G. Tompkins.
Mr. Exford’s criminal record prior to the fatal fire incident, Mr. Tompkins
argued, shows he “is not interested in following the law,” while requesting
that bail be set at $500,000.
Attorney John W. Hallett, who also represented Mr. Exford in the original
trial, countered by asking for bail to be set at $100,000, arguing Mr.
Exford would again stay with his mother and that he did not miss any of his
required appearances in court when previously out on bail for nearly seven
months prior to the original trial.
“I did not expect the bail to be otherwise, although Shawn is not a flight
risk and proved that when he was out on a $3,000,000 bond prior,” Mr.
Exford’s mother, Shannon Exford, said when asked about posting bail after
the hearing had concluded. “For his safety and to eliminate the potential
for him to be set up or accused of anything in the meantime, I will forego
bail at this time until closer to a trial date. I previously posted bail
two weeks before trial only to have it {the trial}
move out six months. I feel resources are better spent building a proper
defense as we’ve been doing the last three years.”
After the first trial, Mr. Hallett had said that it would be his last trial
as he was retiring- but Judge King appointed him as Mr. Exford’s attorney
of record going forward during today’s hearing, which Mr. Hallett accepted.
“It would be an injustice to bring in another attorney at this point,” Judge
King stated.
DA Tompkins was not the district attorney at the time of the original
trial. Special Prosecutor Caleb Petzoldt and then Assistant DA Mark Lemieux
prosecuted the case for the county.
The State Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department overturned Mr. Exford’s conviction for two counts
of first-degree arson, two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of
second-degree murder with depraved indifference, one count of second-degree
arson and six counts of reckless endangerment on January 31. That court
found that the evidence in the case was all circumstantial with “no direct
evidence” against Mr. Exford and that the jury should have been given
instructions specific to circumstantial cases during Mr. Exford’s March
2022 trial- as requested by Mr. Hallett at that time.
This is Mr. Hallett’s second murder trial with an overturned verdict
because the circumstantial evidence instructions were not given to the
jury. The new trial in the first case in Jefferson County resulted in a not
guilty verdict returned by the jury.
Mr. Exford’s new
trial is slated to begin this June. He is currently being held at the Lewis
County Jail, pending bail.
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