BENTONVILLE -- A jury deliberated for more than three hours Wednesday but did not reach any verdicts in Shawna Cash's capital murder trial.
The seven women and five men are tasked with deciding whether Cash deliberately killed Pea Ridge police officer Kevin Apple when she hit him with a Jeep and dragged his body 149 feet.
Cash, 25, of Pine Bluff, is charged with capital murder, fleeing, two counts of aggravated assault and obstructing governmental operations. She pleaded innocent to the charges.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The panel deliberated after hearing closing statements from the attorneys. The jury did not reach any verdicts before Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren sent them home.
The jury will return this morning to continue deliberating.
Karren told the attorneys one of the three alternates became ill after lunch, and he sent her home but did not dismiss her from jury service and will check today on her condition.
Apple was killed June 26, 2021. He and Brian Stamps, then a Pea Ridge police officer, heard a dispatch about 11:30 a.m. 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 stopped his patrol vehicle behind the Jeep, and Apple stopped his car in front of the Jeep.
Cash hit Stamps' vehicle, then sped forward and hit Apple who became caught under the vehicle. Stamps testified he fired four shots at the Jeep after seeing Apple underneath it.
Cash was later apprehended by a Bella Vista police officer after she crashed the Jeep and fled into the woods.
Witnesses testified about seeing the shooting, and two witnesses told jurors about coming to Apple's aid. Prosecutors played recordings of the encounter at the store and of police pursuits involving Cash.
There has been no debate in the trial of whether Cash killed Apple. Lee Short, one of Cash's attorneys, told jurors in his opening statement that Cash killed Apple, but he said she was only attempting to flee police and did not intend to kill the officer.
Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Robinson urged jurors to find Cash guilty of capital murder. He told the panel in his closing statements Cash had two options. One was to go to jail, the other was to kill Apple.
Robinson said Cash acted with intent to flee police and because of that, she decided to kill Apple to achieve that goal. He reminded the jurors about Cash's history of fleeing police.
He told jurors fleeing from police was not only a sport for Cash but a way of life for her, adding Cash was more experienced in high-speed pursuits than the officers chasing her.
The jury may find Cash guilty of first- or second-degree murder instead of the capital offense.
Robinson said finding Cash guilty of first- or second-degree murder was the easy way out. He said Cash acted with premeditation and deliberation when she killed Apple and it is capital murder.
"I would rather you walk her out the back door rather than convict her of anything else," Robinson said.
He said Apple's family, friends and the community deserve for the crime to be called capital murder.
"Don't take the easy way out," Robinson said.
Cash acted with premeditation and deliberation when she slammed her foot on the gas and dragged Apple's body, he said.
"The fact she had never killed a police officer before is because they were not in front of her," Robinson said. Cash made that choice June 26, 2021, he said.
Short told jurors his client killed Apple but said her actions were not deliberate or premeditated. Cash did not purposefully kill Apple and was only trying to avoid arrest, he said.
Her intent was to get away and not one time did she ever say she wanted to kill someone, Short said.
Short said he was asking jurors to find Cash guilty of second-degree murder because she didn't care about her actions, but she did not purposefully kill Apple. He asked jurors to listen to evidence, then decide whether Cash intended to kill.
Short said Cash "freaked out" and the only thing she could think about was to get away. He said Cash repeatedly told the detective during the interrogation she wanted to get away.
Short told jurors Cash also fled after Elijah Andazola -- the passenger in the Jeep -- urged her to go.
He told the jury they had to decide whether Cash had the conscious objective to cause Apple's death.
"We are not disputing she killed Apple, but the issue is whether she acted with purpose and there's no evidence of her intent to cause the officer's death," he said.
Short said the conscious objective also had to be present to find Cash guilty of first-degree murder. He told the jury his client knowingly caused Apple's death, which is second-degree murder.
"Make no mistake; she's guilty of second-degree murder," Short said. "She didn't care."
Andazola, 21, of Bentonville is charged with accomplice to capital murder and escape. He has pleaded innocent. 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.
Cash and Andazola are both being held without bail in the Benton County jail.