Newsletter
March – April, 2008 / Volume 7
Contact Us:
Commonwealth’s
Attorney Lynn Pryor
511 South Main Street
Courthouse Annex
Second Floor
Hopkinsville, KY 42240
(270) 889-6587
(270) 889-6590
Email:
/
“Leading the Fight on Public Safety”
Hello Everyone! Welcome to the 7thEdition of our newsletter. If there is a particular topic you are interested in learning more about, please let us know. And, as always, feel free to forward the email to anyone who might be interested. If you will send us the email addresses, we will make sure to include them on our distribution list.HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY
SPOTLIGHT: Kirby James Fullerton/Summer Intern
Kirby James Fullerton is working with our office this summer as an intern under the U.S. Department of Justice’s Rural Drug Prosecution Assistance Program. The purpose of the program is to enhance the ability of the criminal justice system in rural parts of Kentucky to prosecute, defend, and adjudicate the increased volume of drug and drug-related crimes, by placing University of Kentucky College of Law students as interns with Commonwealth’s Attorneys, and Public Defenders and Circuit Court Judges.
Kirby is from Jacksonville, Florida, and is a 2007 graduate of the University of Florida where he earned a major in Political Science and a minor in English. He is currently attending the University of Kentucky College of Law and expects to graduate in 2010.
FOCUS ON CRIME: Friend of the Court
Hon. Robert L. Fears is a local attorney who also runs the office known as the Friend of the Court for ChristianCounty. KRS 403.090 outlines the duties of the Friend of the Court to include supervision and enforcement of child support as ordered or adjudged by any of the five judges in ChristianCounty. Child support orders can be enforced by requiring non-custodial parents to pay through wage garnishment, to appear in court each month to make their payments [“appear and pay” docket], by suspending driver’s licenses, by intercepting tax returns, and various other methods. The Friend of the Court also makes arrangements for paternity testing in the event the father of a child disputes paternity.
Friend of the Court handles over 7500 active child support cases, and has presented approximately 100 Flagrant Non-Support criminal cases to the Grand Jury since January of 2007. Flagrant Non-Support is a Class D felony and occurs when someone fails to pay court ordered child support and the amount of arrearage is over $1,000. The Commonwealth is most interested in getting the arrearages and all current child support amounts paid to the custodial parent, so incarceration is not necessarily the answer. Therefore, those who are convicted of Flagrant Non-Support are usually granted probation with conditions that they work and make their monthly payments. However, when someone is ordered to provide for the care of their children and they refuse to do so, the Commonwealth has every intention of pursuing jail sentences for them. Currently, only fifteen out of 455 ChristianCounty inmates [app. 3%] in the prison system are serving time on Flagrant Non-Support charges, and many of them have other charges as well.
Grand Jury
The March-AprilGrand Juryeffectively and proficiently returned 146“True Bill” Indictments and 7 “No True Bills,” while only3 cases were referred back to District Court. As always, the Grand Jury was very dedicated, and we appreciate their service to our community. Their report is attached.
Court Proceedings
From March1, 2008, through April 30, 2008, our office handled 180 arraignments, 30probation revocation hearings, and 121 sentencings.
Jury Trials
On March 3, 2008, AssistantCommonwealth’s Attorney Whitney Westerfield presented the case of Commonwealth v. Maurice Watkins, for the charge of 1St Degree Robbery, a Class B Felony, carrying a possible sentence of 20 years in prison. The Defendant was arrested between buildings on the Christian County High School Campus 30 minutes after the Dollar General Store at BrickyardPlaza had been reported robbed at gun point. He was found with the Dollar Store money bags stuffed down his boxer shorts, and his prints were found on a wrapper around a roll of duck tape located in the Dollar Store office. The trial required the presence of 14 different witnesses for the Commonwealth. Testimony included that of the two victims, several Hopkinsville Police Officers, and a Kentucky State Police fingerprint analyst.
The jury found the Defendant guilty in under an hour of deliberation. During the sentencing phase of the trial, the jury was finally able to hear evidence that while the Defendant committed this crime he was wearing an ankle bracelet issued by the Office of Probation and Parole. He was on parole for the offense of Robbery in another county, and had previously been sentenced to 15 years. On May 7, 2008, Judge Atkins held a final sentencing hearing and imposed a 16 year sentence, in accordance with the jury’s findings, and that sentence will run consecutively to the prior sentence.
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On March 17, Commonwealth’s Attorney Lynn Pryor commenced a jury trial against Andra Killebrew for charges of Rape, Kidnapping, Burglary, and Fleeing and Evading Police. A jury was seated, opening statements were made, and the victim testified about how Killebrew entered her home, held her hostage at knife and gun point, and forced sexual intercourse on her. Following the victim’s testimony, Killebrew entered a guilty plea to each of the charges against him, including being a 2nd degree Persistent Felony Offender. Killebrew was sentenced to twenty [20] years in prison on April 23, 2008. Hon. Jack Faust was the defense attorney.
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On April 9-10, Lynn Pryor tried the case of Commonwealth vs. Carlos Merritt, who was represented by Hon. Chris Woodall. Merritt was charged with Murder, but the jury found him not guilty of the charge. The victim, Kendrick Lovan, was shot multiple times in the back at the Bradley Park in Crofton last August. Merritt and Lovan had a history of altercations as members of rival gangs. The Commonwealth filed a motion requesting permission to discuss the gang involvement of both individuals; however, the Court denied the motion claiming that the mention of “gangs” was too prejudicial to Merritt. Two witnesses testified about seeing the shooting take place; however, at least two other witnesses’ testimony was very different from the initial statements that they made to the Sheriff’s Office. Because their initial statements were not sworn under oath and were not “reports” made to the police, they were not charged with perjury or falsely reporting an incident. Merritt still faces drug trafficking and persistent felony offender charges in DaviessCounty.
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On April 17th & 18th, 2008, AssistantCommonwealth’s Attorney Kathi Adams, tried the case of Commonwealth v. Jeffery Cotton. Jeffery Cotton was charged with burglarizing, robbing, and raping a 75 year-old woman who lived alone in her Herndon home on July 11, 2007.
Cotton broke into the victim’s home using a knife to cut the screen door, then grabbed her throat and demanded her money at knife point. When the victim told Cotton that she had no money, he tied her hands behind her back, put a dark sack over her head, threw to the floor, and raped her with a foreign object. The evidence showed that the assailant was wearing a ski mask and a shirt with a red and white label on it. Evidence was then presented that Cotton washed his hands and ran to his car. Detective Mark Reid, CCSO, intercepted Jeffery Cotton running to his car parked on Dawson Lane, and immediately responded with the assailant’s description given to dispatch. Cotton sped off throwing several items out his car window, leading Detective Reid on a high speed chase through a corn field, and eventually crashing his car alongside Boddie Road. Detective Scott Smith, KSP, investigated the incident, and located a large knife next to the road where Cotton was throwing items out, a ski mask next to the crash scene, and a shirt with a red and white label inside Cotton’s car. Further evidence revealed that after Cotton was in custody being transported to court on July 30, 2008, he jumped off the transport van and tried to run away from officers.
The jury found Jeffery Cotton guilty of 1st Degree Rape, 1st Degree Sexual Abuse, 1st Degree Burglary, 1st Degree Robbery, Tampering with Physical Evidence, 1st Degree Fleeing and Evading the Police, and 2nd Degree Escape. During the sentencing phase, evidence showed that Cotton was already a convicted sex offender who had just served out 30 years for the same crime in JeffersonCounty. Our jury sentenced him to a total of 80 years in prison. His formal sentencing is scheduled for June 10 with Circuit Judge John Atkins.
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On April 28, the re-trial of Commonwealth vs. Jameyel Hodge began with Hon. Lynn Pryor as the prosecutor and Hon. Michael Goodwin from Louisville as the defense attorney. The case involved the 2003 shooting death of Tameica Kendrick at the National Guard Armory. Corey Brodie was also shot in the face that night, but he survived the shots and testified against Hodge in both trials. Hodge was originally sentenced to life in prison; however, the Kentucky Supreme Court remanded the case to Christian Circuit Court for retrial finding that the jury was not properly instructed on self-defense and imperfect self-defense. Hodge claimed that he feared for his own life that night and that is why he took the gun from another individual and shot it inside the gymnasium. Hodge claims that he only shot once in the air and once at Mr. Brodie, denying firing the shot that killed Ms. Kendrick. Brodie admitted to being a member of a rival gang, and he has since turned from gang life and become a minister, a factory employee and a student. Gang affiliation was allowed in this trial, because it was first presented by the defense and not by the Commonwealth. The jury found Hodge guilty of Reckless Homicide for the killing of Tameica Kendrick and of Assault under Extreme Emotional Disturbance for the shooting of Corey Brodie. The jury recommended the maximum of five [5] years on each count, to run consecutively for a total of ten [10] years. Jameyel Hodge was formally sentenced to 10 years by Judge Atkins.
THANKS to all of you who have served on any of the jury pools in ChristianCounty. It has been a privilege and an honor to serve you.
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Sincerely,
Lynn Pryor - Commonwealth’s Attorney
Helpful links:
(Kentucky State Police)
(Sex Offender Registry)
(KY Online Offender Lookup)
(Kentucky Revised Statutes)
(Court Case Information)
(Docket Information)
(Locations of Meth Labs)
(Federal Inmate Locater)
(KY Attorney General)
(DEA)