Evidentiary Hearing Concludes in Quincy Cross Murder Case

The evidentiary hearing for a potential new trial for Quincy Cross, the man convicted of the 2000 murder of 18-year-old Jessica Currin, concluded on Thursday with testimony including that of officers accused of wrongdoing in the case by recanting witnesses.

After the initial hearing dates of Nov. 25-26, the third and final day was set for Dec. 18 so additional witnesses could be called.

the first witness for the commonwealth called to the stand Thursday was Robert O’Neil, one of the former Kentucky Bureau of Examination officers, along with Lee Wise, accused by multiple witnesses of intimidation and forcing fabricated testimony. Throughout his testimony, O’neill strongly denied all allegations that he told witnesses what to say, paid witnesses or threatened them.

“As an investigator,over 40 years of investigation,that attitude of telling the witness what to say is not sufficient,” he said. “On its face, it wouldn’t last. It wouldn’t stand up, especially with juveniles going through the court system, testifying. A lie is not going to last, and I know that, so I would never do it. Also, my integrity, the job that I do and have done for years. All of that would be on the line, so absolutely not.”

O’Neil claimed that neither Vinisha Stubblefield or Victoria Caldwell, two witnesses from Cross’ 2008 murder trial whose recantations of testimony and allegations of coercion from law enforcement have been major subjects of the hearing, would have been capable of sticking to a false story even if they were fed one. He cited Stubblefield’s memory retention issues, which came up during the second day of the hearing on Nov. 26, as an example.

O’Neill said while he might have engaged in language or interrogation tactics that Cross’ defense team would not approve of, he never acted with an agenda or tried to lead or intimidate witnesses.

“We’re dealing with a murder case here,” O’Neill said. “We’re not trying to be nice to everybody. We’ve gotta’ call it like we see it.We can’t sanitize details. We’re preparing the facts, that’s our agenda.”

O’Neill also denied having a sexual relationship with Caldwell. The claim that he did was made by caldwell in a 2023 phone call affidavit, one of the major pieces of evidence that convinced Special Judge Tyler Gill to grant an evidentiary hearing. The commonwealth entered into evidence an audio recording of a Sept.