Despite new evidence Pima County prosecutors said could exonerate a Tucson YouTuber imprisoned last month, the man is set to remain behind bars for another two weeks.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Douglas Metcalf, at an emergency hearing Nov. 3, said busyness in his schedule plus legal procedures would keep YouTuber Lane Myers behind bars until at least Nov. 17.
The hearing came after prosecutors received information from a search warrant that showed emails that played a role in Myers' sentencing actually came from the home of the victim, Shannon Walker, and her husband, Tucson city prosecutor Matthew Walker. Matthew Walker was placed on paid leave Nov. 5, pending an investigation into potential misconduct, the city said.
Metcalf said he could not vacate Myers' prison sentence until he was in the courtroom and prosecutors presented evidence.
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"The problem is he's in Kingman, Arizona. If he was here (in county jail), it would be a lot faster," Deputy County Attorney Rachel Stiles told Metcalf.
To get Myers to court, Metcalf had to order Stiles to file a document commanding the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry to transport Myers from the Kingman prison to the Pima County jail. Though the drive is only about 5 hours, Stiles said the process usually takes two weeks.
She and Resnick asked Metcalf if he could expedite the process, but he said he didn't know how and that his schedule for a hearing was "limited" anyway.
The news of Myers' potential release sent shockwaves through the community of YouTubers who supported Myers and repudiated his sentencing just weeks ago.
One of Myers' closest friends, Joshua Gray of the YouTube channel "This is a Public Service," was mystified that Myers would have to remain in prison for two more weeks.
"Where's the sense of urgency?" Gray said on his livestream immediately after the hearing.
Asked about the lengthy transport process, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said it stemmed from the fact that superior courts and the Arizona Department of Corrections operate separately.
"The federal court and the U.S. Marshals here are in more of an ecosystem where the marshals take the direction from the federal judge and can produce a person within even 24 hours in a true emergency. In the state system, it's just one agency talking to another and not under each other's control."
Search warrant sows doubt
Myers, 43, was sentenced to 3 years in prison Oct. 6 for violating probation after he made videos about Shannon Walker that were said to have led other people to bombard her with harassing and threatening emails.
Myers previously pled guilty to felony charges of stalking and harassing Shannon Walker in July 2025 for making YouTube videos and filming himself at her work. In lieu of prison time, he agreed to probation.
His prison sentence came after the Walkers claimed he started making videos about them over the summer of 2026 in violation of his probation conditions — conditions that forbade him from speaking about either of the Walkers, and which First Amendment experts interviewed by The Republic said appeared to enforce a gag order.
The threatening emails Shannon said she received appeared to play a key role in Metcalf's decision to revoke Myers' probation and send him to prison.
"He’s rolling the ball down the court, and it’s causing other to react. He knew he was not supposed to do this," Metcalf said Sept. 16, the fourth day of Myers' probation revocation hearing.
But on Nov. 2, Myers' attorney was called into a meeting at the Pima County Attorney's Office. He said Stiles and Chief Criminal Deputy Josh Mosher told him search warrants executed by the U.S. Department of Justice connected a Proton email that Shannon Walker received to an IP address associated with her and Matthew Walker's home.
The information threw a major dent in the Walkers' claims that Myers' videos were causing other people to harass Shannon Walker.
"The call was coming from inside the house!" Resnick told The Arizona Republic after the meeting.
Search warrant findings lead to more questions
So far, the County Attorney's Office is only seeking to free Myers from prison and put him back on probation. Stiles said she needed more time to investigate the findings to determine if the probation revocation hearing needed to be redone.
Myers' attorney said he believed it did.
For the YouTuber's supporters, though, the newfound evidence also raises questions about Myers' initial 2025 convictions. They wonder if the Walkers played a role in sending third-party emails to Shannon Walker back then.
Other questions remain:
— While the search warrant connected the email to the Walkers' home, who sent it?
— Is the Walkers' home connected to multiple harassing emails from 2026, or just one? (Resnick said the Proton search warrant couldn't identify the origin of some emails because they used virtual private networks, which obscure the IP address.)
— Did any of the emails that played a role in Myers' 2025 harassing and stalking convictions come from the Walkers' home?
The Tucson Police Department's Nov. 2 search warrant that seized the Walkers' devices (six laptops, including a city of Tucson-issued one, as well as cell phones and a router) may answer these questions.
But what remains unclear is how much the emails will matter in the grand scheme.
More central to Myers' case than third-party emails was his role in making videos about the Walkers on YouTube that courts have found to be harassing.
Myers may not be legally vindicated if a judge determines the YouTuber's videos constituted harassment and a probation violation even without the emails in question.
An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 17.
