(LEX 18) — During a preliminary hearing Friday morning, a detective testified that a woman named Monica Hardin was with Steven Sheangshang during the fatal shooting of a Scott County deputy last week.
A woman of that same name is facing a charge of grand theft of a motor vehicle in Clermont County, Ohio, according to court records. A complaint filed in that case states that it is believed Steven Sheangshang was also involved in the theft.
Sheangshang is facing multiple charges in Kentucky, including murder of a police officer, robbery and first-degree assault in connection with two shootings and multiple alleged car thefts that happened last Monday. He’s accused of fatally shooting Scott County sheriff’s deputy Caleb Conley after a traffic stop on I-75, stealing a couple’s van at gunpoint at a Scott County home, driving to Fayette County and shooting another man and stealing his vehicle, according to court records.
Hardin has not been charged with anything in connection with the shootings or vehicle thefts last week.
“She confirmed that when they were stopped in Scott County, Mr. Sheangshang told her that this was not going to end well and that she heard a shot there,” a detective testified during Sheangshang’s preliminary hearing Friday.
Sheangshang was already suspected in multiple burglaries in Kentucky and Ohio before last Monday’s events.
Sheangshang and Hardin are accused of stealing a 1971 Chevrolet El Camino in Ohio just three days before the shootings, according to court records.
Deputies in Clermont County, Ohio, were called to a home on May 19 for a report that someone had forced their way into their detached garage and taken the El Camino.
Hardin admitted to going into the garage with Sheangshang, and then following in another vehicle as the El Camino was driven to Cincinnati and sold, according to the complaint. The vehicle she drove is described as a “red Nissan Murano,” the same type of vehicle mentioned in multiple burglary cases involving Sheangshang.
Sheangshang’s Scott County arrest citation states he was driving a Nissan Murano when he was pulled over by Conley.
It hasn’t been confirmed how Sheangshang and Hardin might have known each other, but the Woodford County Judge Executive confirmed that Hardin briefly worked in the courthouse in the tax administrator’s office. Sheangshang did community service at the courthouse while being held at the Woodford County jail.
Hardin was fired from the tax administrators’ office after she stopped showing up for work on February 13, the judge executive said. That’s about the time Sheangshang was released from jail, according to the Woodford County jailer.
Hardin is being held in the Franklin County Detention Center as a fugitive on the charge out of Clermont County, according to jail and court records. She’s set to have an extradition hearing next week.
