JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville woman accused of killing her girlfriend, then leaving her body on the front porch of their home for nearly a week was in Duval County court Wednesday for a pre-trial hearing.
Shannon McCarthy, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and written threats to kill or do bodily harm in the July 2023 fatal shooting of her girlfriend Heather Sheppard. She has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
Sheppard had been missing since June 29, 2023 (officially reported missing to police July 3, 2023) before her remains were found by detectives six days later in an "advanced state of decomposition" outside of their home on Colonial Avenue on Jacksonville's Westside. Police were at the home to investigate Sheppard's disappearance, McCarthy's arrest report states.
McCarthy was already facing charges from a reported battery against Sheppard in January 2023. She was out on bond on the battery charges, but her bond was revoked by a judge after Sheppard's remains were found.
Neighbors nearby the couple's home reported smelling a "foul odor" before Sheppard's body was located. The street of their address was the last place Sheppard was seen, according to a flyer posted on The Justice Coalition's Facebook page; see below.
Sheppard's family previously told First Coast News her phone was turned off, her credit cards were missing, a stained pair of shoes were found in McCarthy's home and that they found Sheppard's truck with a bullet hole in it.
McCarthy and Sheppard had been in a relationship together since approximately November 2022, according to a McCarthy January arrest report.
McCarthy claimed she killed Sheppard in self-defense
Back in July, McCarthy asked for her case to be dismissed, claiming that she committed Sheppard's murder, but that it was done in self-defense. Her attorney filed a motion on July 24 saying her case falls under Florida's Stand Your Ground law.
McCarthy claimed she was in a situation where Sheppard was "acting aggressively towards her in an argument, with a shotgun in her hands."
"Fearing for her safety, Ms. McCarthy attempted to wrestle the shotgun away from Ms. Sheppard," the motion states. "During this struggle Ms. McCarthy was knocked to the ground and Ms. Sheppard fell backwards into a couch. Ms. Sheppard began to point the shotgun at Ms. McCarthy and Ms. McCarthy, still on the ground and reasonably believing and fearing she would be shot, withdrew her pistol and shot Ms. Sheppard several times."
Then in a court hearing on Aug. 9, McCarthy's attorney Charles Fletcher argued that she and Sheppard got into a physical altercation that resulted in Sheppard standing over her with a shotgun. The defense said that's when McCarthy shot a handgun four times, killing Sheppard.
The state called six witnesses in the hearing to support its argument that Sheppard was killed by a violent act, and not in a moment in which McCarthy was defending herself as stated in the motion.
Part of the state's argument centered around testimony from Sheppard's friend and business partner Jeffrey McCreedy, who said he went to their home multiple times at the end of June 2023 to speak with Sheppard. He said McCarthy continually changed her story as to why Sheppard couldn't talk, stating he was told that Sheppard was sick or ran away with her sister.
Detectives with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office testified that Sheppard's body was decomposing on the front porch of the home for nearly one week while her family filed a missing person's report.
The state questioned McCarthy's Stand Your Ground motion, saying McCarthy never called police after the shooting, adding that she changed her story about her knowledge of Sheppard's whereabouts and is accused of trying to clean the home of any blood related to the shooting. The state also brought up threatening text messages that McCarthy sent Sheppard after a domestic violence incident earlier in the year.
"It's pretty vivid, of her saying 'I'm going to kill you and I'm going to have you smell death,'" said prosecutor Joseph Licando.
The state said the text was sent five months before Sheppard's remains were found. But, the defense said the location of the bullets found in Sheppard's body show that McCarthy fired a gun in self defense.
"What does that tell you, why is that trajectory important? Because she said in the motion and they stipulated, that it creates connotation in the case that she was on the ground when she did the shooting and a shotgun being pointed down at her," Fletcher said in the hearing.
An examiner with JSO said Sheppard's fingerprints were not found on the shotgun that police found in the home. Sheppard's daughter testified that her mother did not own a gun.
An examiner with the Medical Examiner's Office testified that Sheppard "probably" would have survived her gunshot wounds if she had received immediate medical attention.
Judge's denies McCarthy's Stand Your Ground motion
On Oct. 16, court records show Judge Meredith Charbula denied McCarthy's Stand Your Ground motion.
"Upon review of the testimony and evidence, the Court finds that the State proved by clear and convincing evidence that Ms. McCarthy did not act in self-defense and as such is not entitled to statutory immunity," the court order document states.
Judge Charbula said in the order that "there was much evidence of the Defendant's (McCarthy's) consciousness of guilt."
"Courts have recognized that consciousness of guilt, along with other evidence, can be sufficient to rebut a Defendant's version of events," the court order also states. "Moreover, while circumstantial, the physical evidence that remained after the Defendant's attempt to clean up the homicide scene did not match the Defendant's specific claim of self-defense."
McCarthy's next court date is scheduled for Jan. 15.
