November 08, 2024
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February trial set in Texas in slaying of Maine man

WHARTON, Texas – A Florida woman who is one of five suspects in the slaying of a Maine man found dead along a rural South Texas road was scheduled to go on trial next month on a capital murder charge.

Athena Gandy, 23, of Lakeland, Fla., was arrested in June and is being held in the Wharton County Jail on $500,000 bond.

She’s set to go on trial Feb. 27 in the death of 21-year-old James Junkins, of Biddeford, Maine.

His body was found in a roadside ditch in Wharton County, about 55 miles southwest of Houston, in February.

Junkins was unidentified for several months until a homeless man, 22-year-old Edward Bachelder, turned himself in to authorities in Portland, Maine, and said he had witnessed the murder of his traveling companion.

Gandy’s trial is one of three possible trials still pending in Junkins’ death, Wharton County District Attorney Josh McCown told the Victoria Advocate.

Bachelder was charged with capital murder and is awaiting trial. Also awaiting trial for capital murder is Sean Flanders, 22, of Lakeland, Fla. They are each being held in Wharton County Jail on $1 million bond.

Two other suspects, 22-year-old Tasha Kersey, of Lakeland, Fla., and 27-year-old David Anthony Theriot, of Lexington, Ky., both pleaded guilty to murder in December as part of plea bargains that resulted in 40-year sentences for each.

McCown would not comment on whether the two convicted suspects will testify in the pending trials.


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