Published: November 03, 2009 09:47 am      

Begley murder trial begins

By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer

Forensic lab workers opened testimony Monday in Laurel Circuit Court in the murder trial of Kenneth Ray Begley, 30, charged in the shooting death of his uncle, Edward Eversole.

In opening arguments, Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele told the jury that Begley had, in the home he shared with Eversole, shot his uncle with a 16-gauge Browning semi-automatic shotgun twice. He also told the jury Eversole had been shot with a Browning 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, and hit on the head with a heavy ashtray.

In response, Michael Brophy, defense attorney, told the jury that Begley’s actions were in self-defense.

“The question is ‘why it happened’,” Brophy said.

He said Eversole struck Begley in the face with an ashtray, breaking some of Begley’s teeth, said that Eversole threatened to kill Begley.

“This is a case of self defense,” Brophy closed.

Mary Gregory, an emergency room staff member at St. Joseph hospital in London, testified that on the night of Eversole’s death, she took blood samples from Begley to be sent to the state forensic laboratories.

Chad Norfleet, a toxicologist for the state laboratory, testified that he found oxycodone in the blood submitted to him for examination. The concentration of the drug in Begley’s blood was 0.005 milligrams per centigram, he said.

In cross examination, Brophy asked the therapeutic dose of the painkiller and Norfleet said it is from 0.001 to 0.010 milligrams per centigram.

Norfleet was followed by Crystal Rolfe, a physician on the staff of the Kentucky medical examiner.

She could not identify the order in which Eversole received his wounds, but described the victim’s gunshot wounds.

The pistol shot entered above Eversole’s right nipple, passed between the fourth and fifth ribs, through the heart sac and lower left lung, exited on the left side of the body, then entered the left arm and lodged against the humerus bone, she testified.

She said it was probably the fatal wound.

A shot from the shotgun struck the upper back on the left side near the shoulder blade. Another shotgun wound from a shell carrying a slug entered Eversole’s right groin area.

A fourth wound was a “blunt force injury to the head,” she said. She explained that the skull on the right side of Eversole’s head was indented over a round area of about two inches in diameter.

Matthew Joseph, the father of some of Eversole’s grandchildren, testified that he visited the Eversole home the afternoon before Eversole died.

He testified that he had assisted Begley, Eversole and Judy Eversole working on an all-terrain vehicle.

Joseph said he entered the home and saw the shotgun in question on a couch, picked it up and unloaded it, putting the ammunition on a table in another room and replacing the shotgun on the couch.

He said he did it because he was afraid the grandchildren might play with the gun.

Anne Eversole, who’s husband is a cousin of Ed Eversole, testified that on the morning of the alleged murder, she was called to Ed Eversole’s home at his request. She testified that there was no altercation between the two men that morning.

She said she arrived at about 9 a.m. and after lunch, at about 1 p.m. or 1:30 p.m., left with Begley and Ed Eversole.

She said they stopped at the East Bernstadt post office, a bank in downtown London and McDonald’s for coffee for which Begley paid.

They got back to the home about 2:30 p.m.

She said she had seen no fighting between Ed Eversole and Begley.

The trial continues Tuesday beginning at 9 a.m.