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Posted by: kwflatbed

The Associated Press


CLAY CITY, Ky. --
A man in custody shot a small-town police chief to death Wednesday from the back seat of the chief's cruiser in Eastern Kentucky, a county official said.
Powell County Judge-Executive Darren Farmer said Police Chief Randy Lacy was shot by a man he had arrested shortly after 11 a.m.
It wasn't immediately clear if the gunman escaped. The police department phone in Clay City rang busy.

Wire Services

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Posted by: Inspector

CLAY CITY, Ky. (AP) -- A county official says a man in custody shot a police chief to death in eastern Kentucky from the back seat of the chief's cruiser in Clay County, which is in eastern Kentucky.

Powell County Judge-Executive Darren Farmer said Police Chief Randy Lacy was shot by 27-year-old Jamie Barnett, who he had arrested shortly after 11 a.m.

State police spokesman Phil Crumpton says state police are still investigating and has no further details to release.

The chief's brother, Garland Lacy, says he learned about the shooting while listening to a police scanner. He says his brother was dead by the time he reached the scene.

Susan Puckett, a witness who knew Lacy, said "Randy always went the extra mile to help people. He's a nice man."

Lacy was the only police officer in Clay City. A search for a deputy was under way, but no other officers have been hired.

This is the second fatal shooting involving law enforcement officers in Powell County; Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe were killed while trying to arrest a man in 1992. The shooter was convicted and is now on Kentucky's death row.

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Posted by: kwflatbed

By JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writer

MOUNT STERLING, Ky. --
A man accused of fatally shooting a police chief from the back seat of a squad car said Thursday he didn't remember the killing but would trade his life for the chief's if he could.
"I'd lay down there and let them stick a needle in my arm if it would bring him back," Jamie Barnett said in a jail interview with The Associated Press in Mount Sterling, about 15 miles from the site of Wednesday's shooting in eastern Kentucky.
Clay City Police Chief Randy Lacy was shot in the back of his head with a single bullet fired from his own gun, Powell County Coroner Carl Wells said Thursday. The bullet was fired from the back seat and passed through a wire and hard plastic barrier before hitting the chief, Wells said.
State police acknowledged that Lacy handcuffed Barnett in the front rather than behind his back - a frequent practice for suspects he knew.
Barnett said Lacy, who had arrested him numerous times, would either cuff him in the front or not at all, "because he was my friend."
Barnett said he didn't remember anything about the shooting.
"I feel like I'm dying inside," he said in the interview. "I remember going to a liquor store and eating a handful of Xanax and ending up here." Xanax is an anti-anxiety medication.
Barnett, wearing a blue jail jumpsuit with long, scraggly brown hair and unshaven beard and mustache, occasionally buried his face in his hands and had tears streaming down his face for most of the interview, which lasted about 12 minutes.
Barnett said he had been high on drugs including cocaine for at least six months but never intended to harm anyone.
"It wouldn't even cross my mind, no matter how messed up I got," he said.
His most recent arrest prior to the shooting took place April 9, when he was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident, driving with a suspended or revoked license, driving without insurance, DUI and disorderly conduct.
A citation for the incident reports that he threatened a state trooper by saying, "Let me out of these handcuffs, I'll hurt you."
Lacy had arrested Barnett early Wednesday on a charge of driving under the influence.
After Lacy was shot, his cruiser traveled another 350 feet before hitting a stop sign and rolling into a ditch.
Investigators were trying to determine how Barnett got the weapon. Lacy usually carried two guns with him.
"That's kind of a mystery to us," Wells said.
Deputy Greg Adams said Lacy often kept a second gun between the seat and console in the front. He speculated that the extra gun could have slipped to the back, but Kentucky State Police officials handling the investigation wouldn't comment on that theory.
Barnett was to be arraigned on a murder charge Friday.
Lacy, the only officer in Clay City, was remembered as being tough on the drug epidemic but compassionate to the criminals, many of whom he helped put behind bars.
Gov. Ernie Fletcher directed that flags at all state office buildings remain at half-staff in honor of Lacy until sunset on the day of his funeral. The service was scheduled for Sunday at the Powell County High School gym.

Wire Services

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Posted by: kwflatbed

By JEFFREY McMURRAY
Associated Press Writer


STANTON, Ky. --
A man charged with killing a small-town eastern Kentucky police chief was found competent to stand trial Wednesday, but a judge still must sort out whether the man intentionally failed IQ tests to avoid possibly facing a death penalty.
Jamie Barnett is accused of killing Clay City police chief Randy Lacy, who was fatally shot in June 2007 in the back of his squad car during an arrest. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, but Barnett's court-appointed attorneys claim he is mentally retarded and not eligible for capital punishment.
The U.S. Supreme Court banned executions of the mentally retarded in 2002.
Powell Circuit Judge Frank Fletcher scheduled another hearing Monday to allow defense attorneys to bring family members in to persuade the judge that Barnett is mentally retarded. According to Barnett's school records, he failed two grades in elementary school and dropped out in fifth grade.
At the competency hearing Wednesday, Dr. Amy Trivette with the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center testified that Barnett showed behavior inconsistent with mental retardation during her six weeks of observation and failed a test to detect whether inmates were faking a low IQ.
Even though IQ tests showed Barnett tested below the mental retardation threshold of 70, Trivette said his IQ was probably closer to 84. She based that in part on his advice to other prisoners to stay off drugs.
"Whenever there's somebody in the community who takes on a fatherly role with some of the other patients, that's never the mentally retarded guy," Trivette said.
She also said when doctors told Barnett had contracted Hepatitis, he became active in his treatment. Defense attorneys objected to bringing up that medical information and urged the hearing be closed, but the judge overruled them.
Barnett's brother, Jerry Barnett, said afterward that prosecutors appeared to be trying to alter the IQ test results to keep the maximum punishment in place. "If it had come back at 90, they wouldn't have had any problem accepting that," he said.
Lacy was one of several law enforcement agents in his family, including brothers who serve as jailer and court bailiff in Powell County.
Lacy's practice of respecting familiar prisoners by handcuffing them in the front rather than the back has been identified by some family members as possibly contributing to his death. He was shot with his own gun.
Jury selection in Barnett's trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.


Wire Service

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Posted by: kwflatbed

Ky. man guilty of killing police chief

By Cheryl Wittenauer
The Associated Press

MOUNT STERLING, Ky. — A jury has convicted a Kentucky man of fatally shooting the small-town police chief who was taking him to jail in his squad car.
Jurors found 38-year-old Jamie Barnett guilty Wednesday of wanton murder in the June 2007 death of Clay City Police Chief Randy Lacy. The maximum penalty for the charge is life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Powell Circuit Judge Frank Fletcher asked jurors, who spent nearly 15 hours deliberating over two days, to return Thursday for the penalty phase of the trial.
Lacy's killing shocked the town east of Louisville because he was known as an officer who treated everyone with respect: He even handcuffed familiar prisoners like Barnett in front rather than behind the back.
Two jurors wept as the verdict was read, and several of Lacy's family members teared up as well. One of Barnett's sisters whispered, "Thank God," when the jury opted for the lower murder charge. Barnett's family members declined to make additional comment outside the courthouse.
Prosecutors asked jurors to convict Barnett of intentional murder, which could have led to the death penalty. They said Lacy was shot point-blank in the back of his head with a single bullet fired from his own gun after arresting Barnett during a traffic stop. Lacy's car hit a stop sign and rolled into a ditch, allowing Barnett to try to escape through a window, prosecutors said.
Defense attorneys argued for lesser charges of wanton murder or manslaughter, saying Barnett didn't mean to kill but was high on a mind-altering cocktail of alcohol, cocaine and the anti-anxiety medication Xanax.
Lacy's brother, Chester Lacy, a deputy jailer in Powell County, said family members realized after such a long deliberation process that the death penalty likely wouldn't be an option.
Chester Lacy said he opposed capital punishment for Barnett anyway, but several Lacy family members were pushing for Barnett to be sentenced to death.
"I forgave him the day it happened," he said of Barnett, a family friend. "I'm looking to the Bible."

Wire Service

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