A suspect in a 2019 murder in Auburn has been in a relationship with a woman who taught at Southern Cayuga High School while he was a student there, a Friday hearing in his case revealed.
Gage Ashley, 26, who has been charged with first-degree murder in the November 2019 shooting death of Joshua Poole, has been in a relationship with former Southern Cayuga teaching assistant Mary Ferro, 61, she said during the hearing in Cayuga County Court. Ferro took the stand because the hearing concerned the legality of a police search of her home in Aurelius during the murder investigation.
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Ferro told Cayuga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Chris Valdina that her romantic relationship with Ashley began "sometime after 2017." She had known him since 2014, and gave him rides. Asked by Valdina whether she had actually known Ashley since 2012, Ferro said she had not. It was not asked whether Ferro directly taught Ashley at Southern Cayuga during her testimony.
In February 2015, Ferro continued, Ashley began living with her at her previous home, also in Aurelius. She and her husband separated that year as well. Ashley moved out that fall, and transferred to Auburn High School. The romantic relationship began after he graduated, Ferro said, when he sought her help studying for a test to enlist in the Army. In 2018, her husband filed for divorce.聽
Ashley would go on to have a relationship with another woman, and have a baby with her in August 2018. When they broke up, however, he moved back in with Ferro, she said. By that point she had begun living at the Aurelius home that police would search in November 2019. Prior to the search, she said, he was sleeping there three or four nights a week, and they were having a sexual relationship.
Police then聽arrested聽Ashley, along with Tyree Anglin, Christian Rivera and Lucciano Spagnola, on murder charges. Ashley was convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree attempted robbery and second-degree criminal weapons possession, and sentenced to 21 years to life in December 2021. But his conviction was overturned聽after a state appeals court the grand jury that indicted him was illegally constituted because a member had a criminal conviction. Ashley was arraigned again on the same charges in June, and his second trial is set to begin in March.聽
Asked by Valdina whether she's still in a relationship with Ashley, Ferro said, "Insomuch as you can call having a relationship with someone who is incarcerated a relationship." She smiled at Ashley, who was seated next to his attorney, several times during her testimony. When asked to identify him, she raised her eyebrows while noting that he was wearing orange, as if she was poking fun at him.聽
"I care for him deeply and I am trying to be a support system for him," she said.
Ferro then said she has been banned from visiting Ashley at the Cayuga County Jail. An officer told her she was recorded on video passing Ashley contraband, she continued, and shortly thereafter he was removed from his cell because officers smelled smoke in his block. She also confirmed that she sent $295 to the commissary account of Spagnola, a friend of Ashley's, between July 2022 and May 2023.
Toward the end of her testimony, Ferro said she was asked to resign from Southern Cayuga in December. The school district told her it had been contacted by reporters about her relationship with Ashley following a Dec. 14 story in 新加坡多多开奖记录 about Friday's hearing. Due to the murder suspect's "notoriety," she continued, she was told that "it'd be best for everyone if I just took a full retirement."
According to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request by 新加坡多多开奖记录, Ferro began at Southern Cayuga as a math aide in September 1982 and retired as a teaching assistant in June 2021. She returned to the district as an English language learner tutor that October, and became an after-school supervisor in June 2023. Her resignation was approved by the school board Jan. 8.
Additional FOIL requests by 新加坡多多开奖记录 concerning Ferro and Ashley's relationship have been denied by the school district. Asked by 新加坡多多开奖记录 on Friday whether the district has investigated the relationship, or otherwise has any comment on Ferro's testimony about it,聽Superintendent Patrick Jensen said he is unable to comment on personnel matters.
Looking straight at a person who had shot and killed her brother, Sarah Reed told Lucciano Spagnola about how his actions have affected her family.
Executive Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or david.wilcox@lee.net. Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau contributed to this story.