The trial of a Charleston man accused of killing Kane Roush starts Monday
By: Curtis Feder
Posted on:
MEIGS, Ohio (WOUB) – A Charleston man is set to face trial Monday for the Easter 2021 murder of former Wahama football star Kane Roush.
Jaquan Hall, 22, is charged with aggravated murder, murder, complicity and conspiracy, all felonies. When the indictment was first issued in June 2021, he and his mother were on the run for three weeks before being taken into custody and extradited to Meigs County to face charges.
Much has transpired in the case since then.
Just days before the original trial date last October, Hall’s lawyer took himself off the case, stating in his motion to withdraw that Hall’s “requests for certain procedural outcomes are unreasonable and his attacks on counsel’s ability to effectively represent him have caused the lines of communication to break down.”
Hall then filed motions to represent himself at trial. The judge postponed the trial date to let him reconsider, and Hall got a new lawyer.
The next few months saw numerous postponements due to new evidence investigators found in relation to Roush’s murder.
According to records from the Meigs County Court of Common Pleas, investigators cited a mutual girlfriend between Hall and Roush as the motive for the crime, and that multiple guns were used to kill Roush.
Investigators also found that Hall sustained a bullet wound and was treated at a Charleston hospital while attempting to use a fake name the same morning as Roush’s death. West Virginia law enforcement told investigators that Hall’s statement on when, where, and under what circumstances he got his bullet wound were not credible.
Hall’s trial, rescheduled for May, was postponed once more after a grand jury indicted other suspects in connection with Roush’s murder. Keontae Nelson, 20, and Richard Walker, 21, are being held in Fairfield County Jail and await trial for their alleged roles in the murder later this year.
Multiple eyewitnesses, several forensic experts, Nelson and Walker are among those expected to testify at Hall’s trial next week. Also, a DVD containing an interview with an inmate who is held in the same jail as Nelson and Walker will be shown.
Other key pieces of evidence that will be presented in court include the cell phone and social media records of Roush, Hall, and Ronald Colon, the man who drove Hall to the hospital for his bullet wound.
Hall’s trial will begin at 8 a.m. in Meigs Court of Common Pleas.