MINGO COUNTY, WV (WOWK) — Timothy Kennedy, the man accused of killing West Virginia State Police Trooper Sgt. Cory Maynard in an ambush, pleaded not guilty Tuesday at his bond hearing.
Kennedy appeared in Mingo County Circuit Court Tuesday. His bond was denied.
He is scheduled to be back in court on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
Kennedy, 29, of Matewan, was arrested just before 11 p.m. on Friday, June 2 after an hours-long manhunt. He was found in a stolen vehicle, according to the WVSP. He was arraigned the following morning at 10 a.m.
The West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation website lists his charge as first-degree murder. He is being held in the Southwestern Regional Jail without bond.
Kennedy is no stranger to law enforcement.
In 2018, Kennedy, then 24, admitted to having sex, and taking meth and prescription pills with a minor on Oct. 18, 2018, according to the complaint. He was charged with third-degree sexual assault and contributing to delinquency of a child. These charges were eventually dropped.
One day later, a complaint said Kennedy went to a person’s house with a firearm in a bloody sweatshirt. When law enforcement arrived, they asked Kennedy to put his hands. Kennedy then reached into his pockets and waistband.
Kennedy began fleeing on foot after an officer shot at him. Kennedy was arrested and was found to have a syringe and alprazolam, an anxiety medication. Officers later found a pistol and a magazine with eight rounds he had thrown into weeds while running away from officers, according to the complaint. In Kennedy’s vehicle, officers also found a clip for a semi-automatic pistol.
In 2020, Kennedy, then 26, was reported missing. He was later found 400 feet into a closed mine in a Gilbert area that had not produced coal since 2011. Rescuers found evidence of copper removal during their search. The Department of Health and Human Resources at the time said Kennedy had become lost after trespassing.
The man Kennedy is accused of killing, Sgt. Cory Maynard, is being remembered as a hero by friends, agencies and West Virginia officials. One man – Justin Marcum – told Nexstar’s WOWK that he had talked to Sgt. Maynard the morning before his death.
“He never met a stranger. If it was a homeless person, if it was an attorney if it was whomever, a school teacher, he also took time to say hi to people,” Marcum said. “His presence in the community as a law enforcement officer and just as a man, it’s going to be dearly missed.”
The West Virginia State Police said Sgt. Maynard, 37, was with the WVSP since Oct. 9, 2007. He was a tissue donor. He was married and had two children, 13 and 9, and was from Pike County, Kentucky.
Visitation for Sgt. Maynard will take place at Mingo Central High School from noon to 3 p.m. on Wednesday. His funeral will take place at 3 p.m. with Maj. Jim Mitchell officiating, according to the obituary page.
The page said the pallbearers include Damien Hart, Shepherd University Police Department, Tyler Hannon, WVSP, Jim Hannon, Retired Ohio State Highway Patrol, Jonathan Ziegler, WVSP, Thomas Boggs, WVSP, and Kyle Johnson, WVSP.
The procession route will start at Mingo Central High School. It will then go to King Coal Highway, onto Route 65, Route 52 and US-119N to Chapmanville, West Virginia, the page said.
According to the WVSP in 2015, Sgt. Maynard was awarded the Lifesaving Award for saving a pursuit suspect’s life in January 2014. The pursuit suspect stabbed himself in the neck after he crashed his vehicle. Maynard applied bandages and pressure to save the man’s life.
As a result of the shooting, graduation activities at Mingo Central High School were postponed to Saturday at 10 a.m. in the school gymnasium, according to the county’s Board of Education Facebook page.