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Whitesburg Mountain Eagle - 8.13.26 · Eastern Kentucky Newspapers

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  Speaker 1: Now we turn to the Mountain Eagle to read news
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  Speaker 1: from Witzburg. Your reader today is Bill ven Arsdale. We
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  Speaker 1: will begin with the edition dated August twelfth, twenty twenty six,
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  Speaker 1: which the publishers.
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  Speaker 2: Have donated to a Radio I as a reminder.
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  Speaker 1: Radio I is a reading service intended for people who
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  Speaker 1: are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult
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  Speaker 1: to read printed material. The first headline is judge denies
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  Speaker 1: bail for Stein's says trial can't be held here. Judge
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  Speaker 1: cite's staggering amount of online chatter in moving Stein's trial.
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  Speaker 1: The special judge in the murder trial of former Letcher
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  Speaker 1: County Sheriff Mickey Steins has denied Stein's bail and ordered
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  Speaker 1: the trial moved out of Letcher County. The rulings issued
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  Speaker 1: this week come two months after a hearing on multiple
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  Speaker 1: motions held in a Leslie County courtroom. Stein's has been
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  Speaker 1: jailed in Leslie County since September nineteen, twenty twenty four.
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  Speaker 1: Stein's is charged in the shooting death of District Judge
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  Speaker 1: Kevin R.
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  Speaker 2: Mullens.
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  Speaker 1: Video presented by prosecutors shows Stein's shooting Mullens in the
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  Speaker 1: judge's chambers. According to the orders issued by a special Judge,
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  Speaker 1: Christopher Koran, in granting the prosecution's request to move the
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  Speaker 1: trial elsewhere in Kentucky. Koran said social media chatter has
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  Speaker 1: been so pervasive and Electra County residents have formed such
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  Speaker 1: strong opinions that they can be described as either team
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  Speaker 1: Mickey Stein's or team Judge Mullins. Koran said these divisions
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  Speaker 1: indicate an inability to seat Electric County jury because Stein's
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  Speaker 1: and Mullens were both well known public officials, to which
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  Speaker 1: preconceived opinions as to character and ability create prejudice to
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  Speaker 1: both the commonwealth and the defendant. Koran noted that pre
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  Speaker 1: trial publicity has spanned local and national news outlets and
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  Speaker 1: has included postings of video of Stein's shooting, Mullins, Stein's
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  Speaker 1: court appearances, timelines of the day of the shooting, potential defenses,
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  Speaker 1: court proceedings, and online comments. The coverage of this matter
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  Speaker 1: has been so pervasive, not only from media coverage, but
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  Speaker 1: the amount of information and misinformation on the internet is staggering,
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  Speaker 1: Koran wrote. The prosecution had asked that the trial be moved,
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  Speaker 1: and Koran granted the motion. He gave both sides fifteen
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  Speaker 1: days to submit their proposed locations and reasoning for their choices.
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  Speaker 1: There is one restriction. The court finds that a fair
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  Speaker 1: trial cannot be held in an adjacent county. Koran wrote
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  Speaker 1: the defense had asked that Steins be granted bail and
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  Speaker 1: allowed to remain at his home until trial, but Koran
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  Speaker 1: denied that motion. He cited section sixteen of the Kentucky Constitution,
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  Speaker 1: which says a person charged with a capital crime is
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  Speaker 1: entitled to bond unless one the proof of his guilt
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  Speaker 1: is evident, or two the presumption of his guilt is great.
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  Speaker 1: Koran wrote that prosecutors presented video showing Stein's shooting and
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  Speaker 1: killing Mullins in the judges chambers. He also noted testimony
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  Speaker 1: from Stein's aunt that his behavior the night before the
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  Speaker 1: shooting was not consistent with his normal behavior. The defendant
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  Speaker 1: Stein's was under a lot of stress. The defendant had
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  Speaker 1: gone seven days without sleep. The defendant was afraid someone
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  Speaker 1: was going to hurt his wife and daughter, and the
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  Speaker 1: day the defendant shot and killed Kevin Mullins, the defendant
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  Speaker 1: called and asked to speak with his grandmother, who is deceased.
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  Speaker 1: Koran wrote, at the defendant's request, the court took judicial
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  Speaker 1: notice of the pre trial officer's report. The defense has
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  Speaker 1: already filed notice that it intends to introduce expert evidence
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  Speaker 1: concerning Stein's criminal responsibility. The Commonwealth has the right to
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  Speaker 1: present expert evidence in rebuttal Stein's own expert was present
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  Speaker 1: during an examination by the state forensic psychiatrist. Although employed
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  Speaker 1: by the state, that psychiatrist is intended to represent the
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  Speaker 1: court rather than either side in the case. Koran also
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  Speaker 1: ordered the two sides to work out a location, date
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  Speaker 1: and time for a second examination. He denied a defense
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  Speaker 1: motion to have doctor Timothy S. Allen, the state's psychiatrist,
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  Speaker 1: attend that examination, but said he would approve Allen's attendance
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  Speaker 1: if Allen requests it. The next story is second motorcycle
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  Speaker 1: wreck victim dies of injuries in Johnson County. The second
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  Speaker 1: person injured in a motorcycle crash July twenty ninth at
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  Speaker 1: Lineforks died. Corene Fay Fraser, fifty one, of Premium, died Thursday,
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  Speaker 1: August sixth, at the Johnson City Medical Center in Johnson City, Tennessee.
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  Speaker 1: Her boyfriend, Charles greg Bentley, sixty seven, of Line Fork,
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  Speaker 1: was operating the motorcycle when it went off the road
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  Speaker 1: and struck a tree at Line Fork. He died July
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  Speaker 1: thirty first, two days after the accident. Kentucky State Police
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  Speaker 1: proopers and emergency medical personnel responded to the crash around
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  Speaker 1: five thirty seven pm July twenty ninth, on Kentucky eleven
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  Speaker 1: three in the Lime Fork community. When first responders from
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  Speaker 1: Gordon Fire Department arrived, Fraser was unconscious but breathing. Both
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  Speaker 1: she and Bentley had multiple injuries, and both were flown
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  Speaker 1: by helicopter to Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee. Kreene
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  Speaker 1: was preceded in death by her beloved husband, John Fraser,
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  Speaker 1: and her parents, Lobell Collins and Thelma Collins. She is
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  Speaker 1: survived by her sisters, Lynn Ritchie, Otis Ritchie, and Polly
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  Speaker 1: Hampton ed Hampton, her brothers Anthony Collins, Martha A. Collins,
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  Speaker 1: and Lowell Junior Collins, Martha F. Collins, her nephews Alex Ritchie,
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  Speaker 1: Brittany Ritchie, Caden Ritchie, Isaiah Collins, Logan Collins, and Parker
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  Speaker 1: Shortbridges Munster Collins, her nieces Jasmine Sexton, Cory Sexton, and
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  Speaker 1: Aubrey Collins, and her great niece Violet Sexton Kareen leaves
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  Speaker 1: behind her extra special friends Danny and Lenette Collier.
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  Speaker 2: She also leaves.
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  Speaker 1: Binds her friends Rona Bentley, Shannon Bentley, and Chris Bentley,
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  Speaker 1: along with many other family members and friends who will
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  Speaker 1: forever cherish her memory. Funeral services were held at eleven
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  Speaker 1: a m. Tuesday, August eleventh at the Red Fox Pentecostal Church.
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  Speaker 1: Burial was in the Collins Family Cemetery at Isisom. The
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  Speaker 1: next story is four cases of bad intestinal disease reported here.
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  Speaker 1: Don't drink the water is a common refrain for people
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  Speaker 1: traveling outside the United States, but for those traveling inside
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  Speaker 1: the country, don't eat the lettuce might be a more
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  Speaker 1: appropriate warning. According to the latest figures available from the
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  Speaker 1: Kentucky Department of Health Services.
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  Speaker 2: And the U.
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  Speaker 1: S Food and Drug Administration, there have been more than
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  Speaker 1: six hundred reported cases and two hundred seventy four confirmed
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  Speaker 1: cases of cyclosporiasis in the state. So far, Letcher County
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  Speaker 1: has had just four confirmed cases. While that may not
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  Speaker 1: seem like many, Fayette County has had only nine and
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  Speaker 1: doctor Ferres Cotter, an infectious disease specialist at Mountain Comprehensive Health, corporations.
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  Speaker 1: Weisburg Clinic said that doesn't mean there aren't others. The
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  Speaker 1: four cases we've had here might not be all there is.
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  Speaker 1: He said, there might be more we don't know about.
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  Speaker 1: Cyclosporiasis is a gastrointestinal illness caused by a protozoa called cyclosphora,
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  Speaker 1: a type of single celled parasite. People become infected with
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  Speaker 1: cyclospora after eating foods or drinking water contaminated when food
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  Speaker 1: is irrigated or washed with water contaminated with human feces.
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  Speaker 1: It can also be ingested while swimming in pools, lakes,
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  Speaker 1: or ponds that are contaminated. Finding the source of the
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  Speaker 1: contamination can be difficult because symptoms of cyclosporiasis, including what
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  Speaker 1: has been described as explosive diarrhea, don't appear for up
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  Speaker 1: to a week after a person is infected.
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  Speaker 2: But in the.
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  Speaker 1: United States it usually comes from foods. Most of the
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  Speaker 1: cases in this country have been linked to iceberg lettuce
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  Speaker 1: that has been pre shredded. The main source has been
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  Speaker 1: identified as coming from tailor farms in Mexico. There have
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  Speaker 1: been more than six thousand, three hundred cases in the
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  Speaker 1: United States. Symptoms are bloating and The most important thing
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  Speaker 1: is a diarrhea that doesn't go away.
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  Speaker 2: Cotter said.
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  Speaker 1: Most goes away in two or three days on its own,
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  Speaker 1: but diarrhea that doesn't go away should be treated. Other
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  Speaker 1: signs of the infection are a loss of appetite, weight loss,
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  Speaker 1: stomach pain, nausea, and fatigue. Cotter said the main concern
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  Speaker 1: is for people with immune disorders or immune suppression. The
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  Speaker 1: prolonged diarrhea can lead to dehydration and low electrolytes such
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  Speaker 1: as sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Deaths that have occurred from
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  Speaker 1: cyclospora are related to those problems. There is treatment for
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  Speaker 1: it once it's confirmed, antibiotics, sulfa drugs for ten days.
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  Speaker 2: Cotter said.
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  Speaker 1: Once it starts, you should get it treated because it's
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  Speaker 1: not going to go away. Cotter said washing vegetables thoroughly
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  Speaker 1: and rubbing the skin to remove the protozoa is necessary,
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes that's not enough for people with compromised immune systems.
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  Speaker 1: If you have a low immune system, you should boil
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  Speaker 1: or cook your vegetables, Cotter said. National experts say the
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  Speaker 1: most common vegetables that carry the protozoa are iceberg and romaine, lettuce,
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  Speaker 1: fresh herbs such as cilantro, scallions or green onions, snow peas,
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  Speaker 1: and sugar snap peas. Persons should also avoid eating salads
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  Speaker 1: and restaurants and order sandwiches without toppings. If eating at home,
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  Speaker 1: People should avoid shredded and bagged vegetables, peeling the outside
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  Speaker 1: leaves off lettuce, and taking the outside layer off onions
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  Speaker 1: before washing them to eat. Fruits and berries can also
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  Speaker 1: be contaminated with cyclospora, but have not been linked to
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  Speaker 1: the current outbreak. The next story is new rules could
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  Speaker 1: change head Start in Lecture. Health and Human Services Secretary
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  Speaker 1: at Robert F. Kennedy Junior, has proposed sweeping changes to
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  Speaker 1: federal head Start regulations that would eliminate requirements governing bus monitors,
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  Speaker 1: transportation class sizes, and numerous other parts of the program.
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  Speaker 1: The changes could lead to significant differences among head Start
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  Speaker 1: programs across the country because the proposal would shift much
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  Speaker 1: of the responsibility for regulating them to individual states. LKLP
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  Speaker 1: Community Action Agency, which operates thirteen head Start centers across
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  Speaker 1: leslie knot, Letcher and Perry Counties, received eight million, six
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  Speaker 1: hundred eighty one thousand, two hundred sixty five dollars and
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  Speaker 1: twenty five cents in federal funding for the program.
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  Speaker 2: Last year.
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  Speaker 1: KLA head Start director Justin Kollett said he asked executive
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  Speaker 1: director Tawny Acker and the agency's communications director for permission
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  Speaker 1: to speak with The Mountain Eagle by telephone, but was
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  Speaker 1: told he could not. Instead, the agency issued a two
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  Speaker 1: sentence statement by email and asked that questions be submitted
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  Speaker 1: the same way. LKLP Headstart is aware of the proposed
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  Speaker 1: rule and we are monitoring this proposal. We will continue
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  Speaker 1: to provide services to children and families, and we will
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  Speaker 1: keep enrolling, the statement said Kennedy said the proposed changes
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  Speaker 1: would preserve Headstart and create two hundred thirty six thousand
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  Speaker 1: additional spots for children, while generating two point two billion
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  Speaker 1: dollars in savings. Critics say the savings are a principal
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  Speaker 1: motivation for changing the preschool program, which serves between seven
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand and eight hundred thousand low income or special
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  Speaker 1: needs children and pregnant women each year. Kentucky Governor Andy Basheer,
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  Speaker 1: who has proposed universal pre kindergarten since he was elected
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  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, but has been rebuffed by the Republican majority,
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  Speaker 1: in the General Assembly criticized the proposal. In response to
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  Speaker 1: a question from The Mountain Eagle, Governor Busher believes that
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  Speaker 1: dismantling the current head Start program would have a devastating
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  Speaker 1: impact on American families who rely on it for childcare, education, food,
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  Speaker 1: and health services for their young children. Basher's spokesperson, Scottie
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  Speaker 1: Ellis said in a prepared statement, at a time so
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: many families are struggling due to the Trump Administration's cruel cuts,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: unlawful tariffs, and war of choice, this is a dangerous
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  Speaker 1: step that puts vulnerable families, especially children, at risk. The
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  Speaker 1: two point two billion dollars in savings, Kennedy says the
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  Speaker 1: deregulation would generate amounts to about eighteen percent of the
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  Speaker 1: program's twelve point three six billion dollars in funding this year.
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy says the savings would be put back into the
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  Speaker 1: program to create additional slots, but it remains unclear whether
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  Speaker 1: the savings would materialize as projected or what effect larger
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  Speaker 1: class sizes could have on the program. Kennedy also says
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  Speaker 1: the changes would improve children's health by requiring thirty minutes
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  Speaker 1: of exercise each day and changing meals served through head Start.
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  Speaker 1: The proposal is unclear about what changes would be made
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  Speaker 1: to meals. Kennedy has attracted attention for his views on nutrition,
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  Speaker 1: including saying his own diet consists largely of meat and
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  Speaker 1: fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi. He also has
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  Speaker 1: overseen changes to federal dietary guidance that place greater emphasis
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  Speaker 1: on meat and full fat dairy products and less emphasis
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  Speaker 1: on whole grains and fruit. The proposed regulatory changes would
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  Speaker 1: also eliminate federal caps on class sizes, standardized curriculum requirements,
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  Speaker 1: a requirement that Headstart programs helped children brush their teeth,
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  Speaker 1: and the federal prohibition against corporal punishment of head Start students.
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  Speaker 1: Current federal class size limits are twenty children for preschool
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  Speaker 1: classes and eight for infants and toddlers. Call It said
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  Speaker 1: head Start serves children from birth through age five and
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  Speaker 1: is intended to prepare them for kindergarten. While the program
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  Speaker 1: primarily serves low income families, it also reserves slots for
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  Speaker 1: children with special needs. LKLP served four hundred sixty one
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  Speaker 1: preschool students and two hundred twenty seven infants and toddlers
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  Speaker 1: during the last school year. The next headline is Two
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: days into job, Caudle was faced with double murder case.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Acker case came next. Triple murder would help close remarkable
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: twenty six months as prosecutor. L. M. Mike Caudle had
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: been an assistant Lecture Commonwealth's Attorney for all of two
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  Speaker 1: days when he got his introduction to prosecuting murder cases.
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  Speaker 1: James Wiley Craft, who had recently been appointed Commonwealth's Attorney,
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  Speaker 1: hired Caudle on a Friday in May nineteen eighty five.
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  Speaker 1: On Sunday, Caudle was called to Buck Creek at Coulson,
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  Speaker 1: where Casper Collins, seventy three, and his wife, Marie Noble
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  Speaker 1: Collins had been found shot to death inside their home.
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  Speaker 1: It was two days after Caudle recalled recently for a
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  Speaker 1: young lawyer who had graduated from law school only the
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  Speaker 1: year before. It was a startling beginning. It was also
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  Speaker 1: the start of an extraordinary twenty six month period in
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  Speaker 1: Lecture County history. Before Cardle left the Prosecutor's office for
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  Speaker 1: private practice a couple of years later, he would help
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  Speaker 1: investigate or prosecute three of the most shocking murder cases
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  Speaker 1: in the county's modern history, the Collins double murder, the
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  Speaker 1: robbery murder of Tammy Aker, and finally, the nineteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: seven triple murder of PSI Judy and Buster Shepherd. Seven
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  Speaker 1: people were killed in those three Electric County cases. Two
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  Speaker 1: cases involved defendants accused of participating in the murders of
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  Speaker 1: their own relatives. For a small county where crimes of
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  Speaker 1: that magnitude are anything but routine, that period seems almost incomprehensible.
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  Speaker 2: Today.
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  Speaker 1: Caudle is the only surviving member of the prosecution team
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  Speaker 1: that tried the Acker case, the best remembered of the three.
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  Speaker 1: His recollections, combined with the Mountain Eagles contemporary coverage, also
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  Speaker 1: provide a window into two other crimes that have largely
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: faded from public memory. Interest began on Corn Night. Cardle's
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: involvement with law enforcement began years before he became an attorney.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: He traces his interest to the Knight Letcher County Sheriff RC.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Tip Wharf suffered the heart attack that led to his
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: death in nineteen seventy. Carl was about seventeen or eighteen.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: The night before Halloween was then commonly known in Letter
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: County as Corn Knight. What had once consisted largely of
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: youngsters throwing shelled corn against houses had evolved in places
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: into more serious trouble, including groups cutting trees across roads.
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  Speaker 1: Carl's stepfather, Nathan Baker, was then a Whitesburg police officer.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: With complaints coming from several parts of the county, Baker
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  Speaker 1: was asked to help and took Caldl with him when
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  Speaker 1: we went up Craft's college. They cut trees down after
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: we went up, Caudle remembered, but that's what started my interest.
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  Speaker 1: Caudle transferred from Moorhead State University to Eastern Kentucky University,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: where he earned a bachelor's degree in law enforcement. He
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: worked for four years as a criminal justice planner with
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: what eventually became the Kentucky River Area Development District. Karadd
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  Speaker 1: then became a Kentucky State Police trooper before attending law school.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: He graduated from law school in nineteen eighty four and
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  Speaker 1: began working the Whitesburg law firm of Polly Craft, Asher
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  Speaker 1: and Smallwood. The following spring, Craft became Commonwealth's attorney and
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  Speaker 1: hired Caudle as his assistant. Two days later came Casper
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and Marie Collins. It was just a bad scene. The
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: elderly Collinses were found murdered June second, nineteen eighty five,
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  Speaker 1: inside the their small frame home on Buck Creek. They
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: apparently had eaten breakfast shortly before they were killed. Both
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  Speaker 1: had been shot in the head with a thirty eight
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  Speaker 1: caliber weapon.
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  Speaker 2: Marie Collins also was shot in the stomach.
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  Speaker 1: Caudle, still in his first weekend as Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney,
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  Speaker 1: went to the scene. It was just a bad scene,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: he told The Mountain Eagle at the time. It looked
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: like someone just opened up on them. Investigators initially believed
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: robbery was the motive. The house had been ransacked, but guns,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: television equipment, and other valuables remained. Police found more than
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: eight thousand dollars in cash hidden behind a radio, and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: initially believed a considerably larger sum had been taken. There
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: was no sign of forced entry, a fact that immediately
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: troubled investigators. Because those who knew Casper Collins described him
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: as extremely wary of strangers, They believed whoever entered the
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: home likely was someone he knew. Within day, as authorities
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: learned just how well the accused killers knew him, four
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: men were charged, all four of them relatives of Casper Collins.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Sexton and Adrian Sexton were Collins as cousins. Bobby
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Holland and Brack Cracker Collins were his nephews. Brack Collins
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: was also married to Holland's sister and was a half
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: brother to the Sextons.
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  Speaker 2: The family connection made.
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  Speaker 1: An already brutal crime even harder for the community to comprehend.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: In a conversation last week, Caudle remembered Kentucky State Police
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Detective Frank Fleming leading the investigation and developing information that
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: led police to one of the four young men involved,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: who agreed to cooperate against the others. As a result,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the investigation took Fleming and Caudle into Tennis to arrest
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  Speaker 1: another suspect. By then, Cardle was a prosecutor, not a
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: police officer, and intended to remain in the background with
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: an older Tennessee detective while Fleming and a younger officer
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: made the arrest, but heavy traffic interfered with the plan
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: and the other officers were blocked, leading Caudle and the
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: older detective in position to stop the suspect. I said, Hey, buddy,
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  Speaker 1: I don't even have a gun. Caudle recalled the detective,
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  Speaker 1: handed Cardle a shotgun and made the arrest, while Carl
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: stayed behind the rear fender providing backup. Cardle can laugh
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: about that part today. At the time, however, they knew
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: they were arresting a murder suspect. Holland, only eighteen, eventually
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: admitted shooting Casper and Marie Collins, and pleaded guilty to murder, robbery,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and burglary in exchange for his agreement to testify against
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the others prosecuted. Did not seek the death penalty against him.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: The motive became even more disturbing as investigators accounted for
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the Collins's money. Three days before his death, Casper Collins
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: reportedly had shown a friend about eighteen thousand dollars in cash,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: but most of it was eventually found.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: Police came to believe the.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Couple may have been killed for as little as a
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: few hundred dollars and some pocket knives. Fleming already, A
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: veteran detective described the Collins killings at the time as
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the second worst murder case he had investigated. For Caudwell,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: it was his first. Two months later came another, the
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: acker case On August eighth, nineteen eighty five, twenty three
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: year old Tammy d Aker was stabbed to death during
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: a robbery at the Fleming Neon home of her father,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: doctor Roscoe J.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Acker.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Aker was attacked and left for dead, but survived. Authorities
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: eventually charged Roger Dale Eperson, Benny Lee Hodge, and Donald
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Kerry Bartley. After the investigation quickly grew far beyond Lectra County,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the FBI became involved, and the suspects were located in Florida,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: where Eperson, Hodge, and Bartley were arrested after what investigators
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: described as a conspicuous spending spree. After the three suspects
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: were arrested, Caudwell traveled to Florida with Kentucky State Police
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Detective Lawn Maggard and Kentucky State Police Trooper Larry Carroll
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and observed searches that recovered Bank of Whitesburg money wrappers
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: and other evidence. Investigators also had a crucial fingerprint. The
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: three men had carried a small briefcase into the Acker
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: home while posing as law enforcement officers in a rush
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: to carry away far more money than they had anticipated,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: finding they left the briefcase behind. Inside was a piece
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: of plastic bearing. Bartley's thumb print, Caudle recalled doctor Acker's
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: survival gave prosecutors something murder cases usually do not have
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: a living victim able to describe what happened inside the house.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: We knew we did have the right people and enough
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: evidence to prosecute them, Cardle said. Carl's responsibility was to
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: turn the evidence investigators accumulated into an organized courtroom presentation.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: He handled preliminary court proceedings and assembled the prosecution's trial notebook,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: organizing the evidence, witnesses, and supporting legal documentation prosecutors expected
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to need. He gives detective Fleming much of the credit
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: for the investigated work. Bartley eventually pleaded guilty and agreed
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to testify against Eperson and Hodge. His testimony became particularly
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: important to prosecutors seeking death sentences. The trial of Eperson
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: and Hodge began in June nineteen eighty six and lasted
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: about three weeks. There was an enormous amount of evidence
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and a long list of witnesses. According to Caudle, FBI
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: personnel who testified in the case stayed at the Old
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Jenkins Country Club for about ten days while prosecutors had
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: to make certain evidence was introduced in the proper sequence,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: chains of custody remained intact, and anticipated legal objections were
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: researched in advance. The trial drew enormous public attention. National
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: news organizations followed it, and spectators filled the Lectri Circuit
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: courtroom day after day. Eperson and Hodge were convicted and
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: sentenced to death. The Acer trial ended in June nineteen
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: eighty six. Fourteen months later, Lectric County was confronted with
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: another crime that today may be even less remembered than
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: the Collins murders. In the early morning hours of August first,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, a mobile home burned at Breeding's Trailer
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Court near Isisom. Inside were Cy Shepherd seventy six, his
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: wife Judy sixty five, and their son Buster thirty eight,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of Leatherwood in Perry County. Hutopsies showed Cy and Judy
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Shepard had been beaten about the head and chest. None
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: of the three had died before the mobile home was
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: intentionally set ablaze, Kraft said.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: At the time. Police charged the Shepherd's daughter, Caroline Shepard.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Smith twenty two, and her husband Anthony Smith twenty one,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: along with their friends Steve Adams twenty and Rebecca Pennington
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Adams seventeen. The charges included capital murder, kidnapping, arson robbery,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: and burglary. The two young couples and their children disappeared,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: and Kentucky State Police and the FBI launched a nationwide
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: man hunt for fifty nine days. The four remained fugitives
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: then came the break. Police had been waiting for a
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: minor traffic accident caused by a sixteen year old boy
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: pulling into traffic in front of a car driven by
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Caroline Smith. She was unable to stop and struck the
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: rear of his vehicle, and she and Pamela were treated
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: for minor injuries. Eventually, the two couples waived extradition and
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: were returned to Kentucky of bloody twenty six months. Taken together,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the cases form a period of Electra County history that
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: is difficult to comprehend to day. And this concludes the
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: reading of The Mountain Eagle. Your reader has been Bill Denarsdale.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Now please stay tuned for continued programming on behalf of
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: every one here at Radio I thank you for listening,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and have a good day.