NEWPORT, Ky. -- Shayna Hubers' defense team is withdrawing a motion requesting her retrial be moved after prosecutors discovered more than 100 forged documents the defense had filed.
In a response to Hubers' motion for a change of venue, officials wrote that the request "is wrought with extreme, pervasive fraud that rises to the level of criminal conduct."
Hubers' attorneys had argued that she would be unable to get a fair trial in Campbell County, where her original trial for the death of Ryan Poston was held. They also wrote that Hubers cannot get a fair trial in nearby Boone, Bracken, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Owen or Pendleton counties due to widespread news coverage of the original trial which would "taint the prospective jury pool."
The defense lawyers cited more than 100 affidavits from residents of those counties who said they did not believe Hubers could "receive a fair and impartial trial by jury" there.
However, prosecutors questioned the validity of those affidavits, writing in a response to the request that 118 of the 156 affidavits had been forged by a notary.
One of the forged affidavits was signed in the name of an assistant commonwealth attorney who worked in the same office as the prosecutors, they wrote.
Huber's attorneys, David Eldridge and Jeffrey Lawson, said in a written statement Wednesday that they were with drawing the motion. They had hired "what we understood was an experienced and reputable investigative firm" to collect the affidavits, they said.
"We were shocked and saddened to learn" of the forgeries, the lawyers said.
Highland Heights police are investigating the forgery, according to Police Chief William Birkenhauer.
Hubers is facing a murder charge in the death of Poston, her former boyfriend. Police say she admitted to shooting him six times in his Highland Heights condominium in 2012.
She was previously convicted and sentenced to 40 years in Poston's death, but a judge later threw out the conviction after defense lawyers revealed that one of the jurors was a convicted felon not qualified to serve on the jury.
