Police and courts in the Lexington, Ky., area
A Shelbyville minister jailed on charges of sodomizing and sexually abusing a juvenile has AIDS, family sources said.
James H. Bell, 47, pastor of Refuge Temple Church of God in Christ, was arrested and charged with third-degree sodomy, second-degree sexual abuse and first-degree wanton endangerment after confessing to police that he had unprotected deviant sex with a 15-year-old while knowing that he was infected with the HIV virus.
Read more of the story at the Shelbyville Sentinel-News
PARIS — The criminal trial for a Paris man accused of killing a 6-year-old boy in 2007 has been moved to August.
Lewis “Buck” Ballard’s trial was to begin Feb. 4, but defense attorneys said during a hearing Thursday that they needed more time to test forensic evidence.
Ballard, 50, is charged with first-degree sodomy and murder in the death of Wesley Mullins.
Bourbon Circuit Judge Rob Johnson, who had booked the entire month of February for the trial, expressed frustration over the continuance because the trial had been rescheduled in October. The last continuance also was granted because lab testing was not complete.
Johnson said the clerk’s office had started working on the case and had sent subpoenas to potential jurors. The judge said he was concerned that potential jurors would start to follow the case.
“This is probably one of the most important cases that any attorney, judge or jury is going to be a part of,” Johnson said, adding that his frustration was not directed to any side.
He granted the continuance because he said it was necessary for a fair trial.
Defense attorneys said it took a year for the Kentucky State Police lab to test several pieces of evidence. Now Ballard’s attorneys are having items tested at another lab, which could take six to 12 weeks.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Gordie Shaw did not want the trial moved and offered to help find a lab that could get the tests down sooner.
Initially, Johnson inquired about moving the case to July. But Shaw said that was too close to a double homicide he’s prosecuting in Scott County in June.
Herald-Leader staff report
Kentucky State Police are investigating whether the man arrested in a brutal attack in Breckinridge County last month was involved in the unsolved murder of an Elizabethtown woman in 1992.
Ernest Pine, 58, of Breckinridge County, has been charged with rape, sodomy, burglary and attempted murder. State police said he attacked a woman on Aug. 25 and slit her throat.
Before she was flown to University Hospital in Louisville in critical condition, the woman told police that Pine attacked her, trooper Steve Pavey said.
State police said there are similarities between the attack and the 1992 murder of Elena Sanchez Hawkins, 29, who was found dead by her husband at their home on Jan. 8, 1992.
Her wrists had been bound, she had been sexually assaulted and her throat had been cut, according to the state police Web site. She died from blood loss.
The Herald-Leader does not name people who allege sexual assault.
HARDINSBURG — A 58-year-old man remained in jail and a woman was hospitalized in critical condition after what Kentucky State Police described as a brutal attack.
Trooper Steve Pavey says Ernest Pine of Breckinridge County attacked the woman, raped and sodomized her on Monday. Pavey said Pine slit the woman’s throat and left her for dead after the attack.
Pavey says the woman called a neighbor, who called police. Pavey said the victim told police that Pine was the attacker before she was airlifted to the hospital.
Pine was being held in the Breckinridge County jail on Thursday and is charged with rape, sodomy, burglary and attempted murder. Jail records had no attorney listed for Pine.
The victim is still in critical condition at University Hospital in Louisville.
The latest from Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson
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