Hearing delayed for Dunbar woman accused in 9-year-old’s death
A hearing on a defense motion in the case of one of the Fayette County women charged in the death of a 9-year-girl in her care last year will be delayed for two weeks after her attorney requested additional time to research case law.
Sarah Shipley, 36, of Dunbar, faces homicide charges in the case of Renesmay Eutsey.
The motion filed by Shipley’s attorney, Brent Peck, asks the court to quash the notice of aggravating circumstances filed by District Attorney Mike Aubele last year. If Shipley is convicted of first-degree homicide, the notice would allow Aubele to seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors allege Shipley, along with Kourtney Eutsey, 32, killed 9-year-old Renesmay Eutsey in September 2025 after years of mistreatment and starvation. The two are also charged with abusing and neglecting two other children in their care.
Aubele’s motion argued for three aggravating circumstances: that while committing the offense, Eutsey and Shipley “knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person in addition to the victim,” that the offense was committed by means of torture and that the victim was a child under 12.
Peck argued Aubele had not properly established torture as an aggravating factor in Shipley’s case. The factors to be considered include how the murder was accomplished, whether the wounds were inflicted on a vital area of the body, how long it lasted and whether the victim was conscious.
“In the instant case, the Commonwealth has presented no evidence, much less prima facie evidence, of the alleged aggravating circumstances,” Peck said in the motion. “Instead, the Commonwealth has generally asserted that the alleged aggravating circumstances exist.”
Aubele pointed to a long period of malnutrition and neglect in Renesmay’s care, which a physician cited as Renesmay’s cause of death. Blunt force trauma was a contributing factor.
Aubele’s motion seeking the death penalty cited signs of a pattern of abuse among Renesmay and the other children. Eutsey and Shipley also face charges accusing them of abuse and neglect of a 6-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl in the home.
A pediatrician who testified about the condition of the 6-year-old boy described signs of what she described as “torture,” including severe malnourishment.
“The one that went to the hospital could have easily died from the same abuse that Renesmay suffered,” Aubele said prior to Monday’s hearing.
The hearing was rescheduled for Nov. 2.