The filing came after a Jasper County jury convicted Aaron Malone in the killing of Aspen Lewis.
JASPER COUNTY, Mo. — Aaron Malone’s attorney has asked for a new trial after a jury convicted the Exeter man of murdering Aspen Lewis, whose body was found in woods after Malone first reported her missing.
The motion shifts the case from the jury box to the judge’s review of trial rulings. Malone, 24, was convicted April 16 of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence. His sentencing is set for June 9 at 11 a.m., but defense attorney Glenn Huggins filed a post-trial motion listing seven reasons he says the verdict should be set aside.
The defense filing says Judge David Allen Cole should grant a new trial because Malone was not allowed to fully pursue arguments about provocation, witness credibility, preliminary hearing rights, expert review and the state’s closing remarks. One part of the motion says the court wrongly sustained state motions that limited defense evidence and argument about Lewis’ reputation and prior actions. The filing says those limits hurt the defense theory that the case involved heated passion rather than first-degree murder. Prosecutors have not treated the killing that way. They presented evidence that Malone beat, strangled and shot Lewis before leaving her body in a wooded area of Barry County.
The motion also says the defense should have been allowed to question the state’s first two witnesses about statements Huggins described as incorrect or possible perjury. The filing says that questioning would have involved claims about Lewis becoming violent when drunk. Huggins wrote that toxicology evidence showed Lewis was two and a half times the legal limit for alcohol and also had a significant amount of THC in her system when she died. Those claims are now part of the post-trial record. They do not change the jury’s verdict unless the court finds that trial rulings affected Malone’s right to a fair trial.
Another dispute centers on the armed criminal action charge and preliminary hearing procedure. Huggins wrote that Malone had waived a preliminary hearing with counsel before the state added the armed criminal action count. The motion says the new count was not waived or established at a preliminary hearing and that the court should have remanded it. The defense also said Malone later wanted a formal preliminary hearing on all counts. Those arguments are procedural, but they matter because armed criminal action was one of the four counts on which jurors returned guilty verdicts after the three-day trial.
The most technical part of the new-trial request involves medical testimony about the gunshot. Huggins wrote that the defense learned April 1, during the medical examiner’s deposition, that the examiner had changed an opinion about whether the gunshot was pre-mortem or post-mortem. The motion says the court should have continued the trial so the defense could hire an independent expert to evaluate and challenge that final opinion. Prosecutors told jurors that Malone struck Lewis in the head multiple times, strangled her and shot her in the head. The state’s broader case also included evidence from the scene, surveillance video, Malone’s statements and the discovery of the body.
Prosecutors said the investigation began when Malone reported Lewis missing and suggested she may have been abducted. Deputies who responded to an Exeter-area residence later found a large blood stain in the roadway behind Malone’s truck, blood on the truck and a disturbed gravel driveway where jewelry pieces were on the ground. Sheriff Danny Boyd said Malone gave a verbal and written statement about Lewis being possibly abducted. “Inconsistencies were located in Aaron’s statement,” Boyd said in a release describing the early investigation. The state used those inconsistencies to connect Malone’s report to the physical evidence found at the property.
Surveillance video helped investigators build a timeline that placed Malone’s truck at the residence late on Nov. 24, 2024, and away from the property for several hours early the next morning. Records said the truck arrived about 11:35 p.m., and screaming could be heard shortly afterward. Investigators said the truck left about 1:35 a.m. and came back about 4:10 a.m. Malone made a 911 call before returning, according to reports tied to the probable cause statement. The sequence became important because it showed jurors what investigators believed happened between the reported disappearance and the discovery of Lewis’ body.
Authorities said Malone later led them to Lewis. Boyd and Maj. Angela Cole met with him and told him they wanted to locate her. Records said Malone took them toward a rural area, where officers saw the remains of a burned pink wool shirt in the road before finding Lewis off the roadway near Shell Knob. She was deceased and covered with leaves and sticks. A probable cause statement said she had extensive head trauma. Boyd said Malone admitted there had been an altercation and that he had disposed of the body. The defense motion now argues that the jury should have been allowed to hear and consider the case under different limits and with additional expert work.
The prosecution was handled by Barry County Prosecutor Amy Boxx with help from Assistant Attorneys General Melissa Pierce and Michael Schafer. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office said jurors deliberated for about an hour before convicting Malone. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway praised the joint prosecution after the verdict. “We will continue to join forces with local prosecutors and law enforcement to safeguard our communities and ensure violent offenders are taken off the streets,” Hanaway said. The Barry County Sheriff’s Office investigated with assistance from the Missouri State Highway Patrol Criminal Investigations Unit.
The next steps are now controlled by the court calendar. A sentencing assessment is due before June 1, and sentencing remains set for June 9 unless the court changes that schedule. Malone has been ordered held without bond and remanded to the Barry County Sheriff’s Office. The pending defense motion gives the judge a chance to review objections raised before, during and after trial, but the guilty verdicts remain the controlling result unless the court grants a new trial.
As of Saturday, May 9, no public report showed that Malone’s new-trial motion had been granted. The case is still moving toward the June 9 sentencing hearing in Jasper County.
Author note: Last updated May 9, 2026.