Judge Orders New Trial For David Dooley

By Mike Perleberg Convicted and sentenced to life on 2014, David Dooley will be granted a new trial for the 2012 murder of Michelle Mockbee. (Boone County, Ky.) - Convicted murderer David Dooley will get a new trial in Boone County court. Dooley was sentenced to life in 2014 after a jury found him guilty of the 2012 murder of co-worker Michelle Mockbee at the Florence warehouse where they each worked. He has maintained his innocence from the start. A leak from the Boone County Commonwealth Attorney’s office earlier this year suggested that prosecutors withheld evidence from Dooley’s defense attorney. That evidence was a surveillance camera video of the outside of Thermo Fisher Scientific which showed an unknown man attempting to get into the warehouse the day before Mockbee was killed. The subject in the video was never identified by investigators. On Friday, Judge James R. Schrand ruled that Dooley was entitled to know about the surveillance video during his first trial. “The Court finds that the defense was entitled to know about the individual on the video, either by disclosure from the Commonwealth after McVay saw him in his review of the video, or by the defense themselves discovering him in their own review of the video(s) they had been provided, even if it meant requesting assistance from the BCSO in opening it,” Schrand stated in his decision. Schrand’s order vacates Dooley’s convictions for Murder and Tampering with Physical Evidence. Michelle Mockbee’s sister said Friday her family still believes in Dooley’s guilt. “It is very unfortunate that we have to endure another jury trial in our quest for justice for Michelle.  We respect the court’s decision and we will get through this as a family.  There has been a lot of public opinion surrounding this case since Day 1.  We look forward to the public being made aware of the facts of the case that clearly point to David Dooley’s guilt.  We are confident that in the new trial he will be convicted yet again of this horrific crime,” Jennifer Schneider’s statement said. A date for a new trial for David Dooley has not been set. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 10. Revelations of a relationship between the lead detective on the case, Bruce McVay, and the county prosecutor have also cast a shadow on the Dooley murder case. Since the affair was revealed, McVay has retired from the Boone County Sheriff’s Office. Others including Boone County Judge-Executive Gary Moore have called on Boone County Commonwealth’s Attorney Linda Tally Smith to resign. “The ruling today by Circuit Judge J.R. Schrand casts a dark shadow over the Commonwealth Attorney. Although the Commonwealth Attorney is not a county office, as the chief elected official for Boone County, I believe Linda Tally-Smith has lost the public's trust, thus calling into question her ability to effectively execute her duties in our criminal justice system. I join Boone County Attorney Robert Neace in calling for the Boone County Commonwealth Attorney to resign her position,” Moore said in a statement issued Friday. The Boone County Republican Party voted in March to not ask Tally Smith to resign, opting instead to see what Schrand’s ruling would be before perhaps reconsidering. RELATED STORIES: Dooley Retrial Hearings End; Weeks Before Judge Makes Ruling Dooley Attorney Focuses On Affair Between Prosecutor, Lead Investigator Withheld Security Footage May Result In Florence Murder Retrial Retrial Possible In Workplace Murder