Absence of sole eyewitness delays start of manslaughter trial

 A Whitley County homicide trial, which was scheduled to start Wednesday morning, has been delayed until summer.

Keith Edward Mason of Oak Ridge was scheduled to stand trial on a charge of second-degree manslaughter in the 2013 death of his former stepfather.

However, both sides agreed to postpone the trial until July 16 so that the only eyewitness in the case could be subpoenaed to testify. She is currently out of state in Texas.

Circuit Judge Paul Winchester didn’t rule Wednesday morning on a motion filed by defense attorneys to dismiss the case.

Keith Mason doesn’t dispute shooting Robert "Bobby" Vanover, 60, to death on Jan. 20, 2013, on a remote road in far western Whitley County only about 300 yards from the Tennessee state line.

Mason does claim that he shot Vanover in self-defense.

The shooting happened about noon on Ayers Road on or near property that was owned by Mason’s mother. Vanover’s son, Kevin Vanover, was staying on his mother’s property and Bobby Vanover was there visiting him.

Mason told Bobby Vanover that he wasn’t supposed to be on the property, and that his mother had EPO’s and other various paperwork against him.

When the confrontation started Bobby Vanover reportedly told Keith Mason that even though Mason was half his age, he would whip him all over the road and then he struck Mason with a gazing blow to his lip, police testified.

After being struck, Keith Mason fired multiple shots striking Vanover in the chin, the upper chest area near the neck, and in the side.

Vanover wasn’t armed with a gun, but police did find his mag flashlight at the crime scene near his body.

Mason spent 43 days in the Whitley County Detention Center being held in lieu of a $1 million cash bond before he was released after the grand jury issued no indictment against him on March 12, 2013.

The case was presented to the grand jury a second time on July 2, 2013, and the grand jury returned a second-degree manslaughter indictment against Mason.

The grand jury heard from three witnesses when the case was presented the second time including Whitley County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy K.Y. Fuson, who investigated the case, and from two of Vanover’s relatives, his mother, Della Virginia Ball Vanover Terry, and his aunt, Shirley Ball Hudson.