In a tersely worded opinion, a Fayette judge Wednesday refused to throw out $60 million in punitive damages against Shane Ragland for the sniper-style shooting death of a University of Kentucky football player in 1994.

“This court … can find no greater act of reprehensibility than the premeditated, senseless killing of a young man about to enter the prime of his life, particularly in light of the purported motive …” Circuit Judge Thomas Clark wrote. “To lie in wait, in the dark of night, and assassinate a person for purportedly being blackballed from a fraternity years earlier, the court can find no greater reprehensible conduct.”

Ragland has admitted to fatally shooting Trent DiGiuro in front of a Woodland Avenue rental house while he was celebrating his upcoming 21st birthday. Police and prosecutors say Ragland was angry because he wrongly believed DiGiuro had gotten him kicked out of a fraternity.

DiGiuro’s family sued Ragland, and in August a jury awarded the family $63.3 million, including $3.3 million in lost wages.

Ragland and his attorneys did not attend the civil trial. But in September, they filed a motion asking for the verdict to be tossed and requesting a new trial.

Clark overruled that motion in an order that became public on Wednesday.

State police are searching for a man who robbed a Monroe County bank early Tuesday.

A man went into the South Central Bank of Gamaliel around 9 a.m. (CST), indicated he had a weapon and demanded money, according to a news release.

The man took an undisclosed amount of money and fled, possibly in a Nissan car with black trim on the rear. He was last seen driving west on KY 87, state police said.

State police also are searching for a 1998 Nissan Frontier pickup truck stolen earlier Tuesday in Clay County, Tenn., that may have some relation to the Kentucky bank robbery. The truck may say “Breathe Wright” on the doors.

State police said the suspect in the robbery is a white man, about 5 ft., 10 inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds. He was wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt.

Police asked anyone with information to call 800-222-5555 or their local 911 system.

The cause of a small warehouse fire in Winchester Monday night has not yet been determined, fire investigators said Tuesday.

The fire in a warehouse used for storage at Seaboard and Flanagan streets started about 11:30 p.m. Monday, fire investigator Greg Beam said. It appears scrap wood was smoldering inside the building.

Beam said it’s not clear what caused the wood to smolder.

No one was injured.

RICHMOND — The three men charged with the beating of an Eastern Kentucky University student as part of a fraternity hazing ritual will each serve at least 30 days of home incarceration for the assault and could potentially have their records expunged by the end of the year.

Brent Whiteside

Thomas Barnes, Alonzo C. McGill and Gabriel M. McLaren pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault charges Monday morning in Madison District Court. They beat Brent White side last year while he was a candidate for admission into the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity chapter at EKU. Whiteside was later hospitalized with kidney failure.

The cases were set to go before a district court jury Monday morning for a two-day trial, but the plea agreement was reached before Madison District Judge Earl-Ray Neal seated the jury.

The lengths of the men’s home incarceration sentences vary according to their involvement in the hazing and cooperation with police. McLaren, who was in charge of the pledge process within the fraternity, will serve 100 days. McGill, an alumnus of the chapter who lives in New York, will serve 70 days. Barnes was the first defendant to talk to police and will serve 30 days.

Barnes and McLaren were undergraduates at EKU at the time of the assaults. McLaren has since graduated.

Barnes, McGill and McLaren could have their charges dropped and their records expunged if they complete their sentences and follow the stipulations of the agreement, which include not using drugs or alcohol and maintaining employment. Neal will address the issue at a formal sentencing Oct. 19.

The suspects (from left): Thomas Barnes, Alonzo McGill and Gabriel McLaren.

The chance for the charges to be dismissed was a key element in the decision to take the plea agreement, attorneys for McGill and McLaren said.

“The goal here is to move on,” said Michael Eubanks, the attorney who represented McGill.

Eubanks and Jim Baechtold, the attorney for McLaren, denied that their clients meant to harm Whiteside during the pledge process, though they pleaded guilty to the assault charges.

“The intention was not to hurt,” Eubanks said. “The intention was to build brotherhood. You don’t create brotherhood by hurting people.”

Barnes and his attorney, Alex Rowady, declined to comment.

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Deputy Jailer Markie Baker says he went to check on two inmates about 3 a.m. and they overpowered him, put him in handcuffs and left him in the cell. He said they let out a female inmate before all three left.

Two of the inmates, Wayne Maupin and Judy McQueen, were caught by law enforcement, jail officials said, and inmate Billy Farrar turned himself in.