PIKEVILLE, Ky. — Special Judge Eddy Coleman has issued ground rules for the upcoming trial in the Amber Spradlin murder case, now scheduled to begin two weeks from today.

Spradlin’s body was found June 18, 2023, at the Arkansas Creek home of Prestonsburg dentist Michael McKinney. McKinney’s son, M.K. McKinney, has been charged with her murder, while both McKinneys and family friend Josh Mullins are charged with multiple counts of evidence tampering for allegedly trying to cover up the crime.

In addition to setting deadlines for pretrial disclosures and proposed jury instructions, the rules also give us the first glimpse at how the trial will be conducted.

JURY SELECTION

As in all trials, the case will begin May 11 in Pikeville with jury selection. That procedure will be closed to the public and media. No one other than attorneys, court personnel, defendants and prospective jurors will be allowed in the courtroom during jury selection.

Judge Coleman will begin jury selection by asking prospective jurors about potential conflicts, and attorneys will be allowed to ask follow-up questions.

Following the judge’s interviews, the attorneys will be given their own time to interview prospective jurors, with 90 minutes set aside for the prosecution, 60 minutes for M.K. McKinney and 30 minutes each for the other two defendants.

Each side will be given 10 peremptory challenges, which allow a potential juror to be dismissed without stating a reason. In addition, each attorney for the defendants will be given an additional three challenges, for a total of 29 prospective jurors who can be dismissed for any reason.

Once 16 jurors are seated — 12 regular and four alternates — the courtroom will be opened to the public.

TRIAL CONDUCT

Between jury selection and opening statements, the court will hear any pretrial motions.

Afterwards, the trial will begin in earnest with opening arguments. The prosecution will be given 90 minutes, M.K. McKinney’s attorney will be given 60 minutes and attorneys for the other two defendants will be given 30 minutes each.

Objections will not be spoken in front the jury. Instead, attorneys will simply say, “Objection,” and then approach the bench to discuss the matter out of earshot of jurors.

Following the conclusion of testimony, closing arguments will be delivered with the same time limits as opening arguments.

COURT DECORUM

Coleman’s order also governs the conduct of the public, to prohibit attempts to sway jurors. It bars congregations or demonstrations on behalf of any party or victim within 25 feet of any courthouse entrance. Demonstrations outside of those areas are prohibited from encouraging actions that could disrupt or disturb the case, such as asking passersby to honk their horns.

Anyone wearing clothing expressing support for any party or victim will be denied entry to the courtroom.

MEDIA COVERAGE

While media will be allowed in the courtroom to cover the trial, Mountain Top Media will have the only cameras and will provide audio and video to all media who request it.

A copy of the full order follows:

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MAYTOWN, Ky. — Police are investigating after a Floyd County woman was attacked and killed by a dog Sunday afternoon. 

It happened just after 3 p.m. near Railroad Street in Maytown. Floyd County Coroner Greg Nelson confirmed the woman’s death but has not released her identity, as not all family have been notified. The woman was in her 60s. 

Nelson said the dog was a German shepherd that belonged to someone else. He added that he believes the animal was collected by animal control. 

Floyd County sheriff’s deputies also responded to the scene. Sheriff John Hunt had confirmed earlier in the day that deputies had responded to a report that a woman’s body had been found in the street, but he had no other details at that time. 

This is a developing story. Mountain Top News will provide additional information once it becomes available. 

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PIKEVILLE, Ky. — The defendants in the Amber Spradlin murder trial will go to trial in 18 days.

That is the result of a hearing in the case today.

Spradlin’s body was found June 18, 2023, at the Arkansas Creek home of Prestonsburg dentist Michael McKinney. McKinney’s son, M.K. McKinney, has been charged with her murder, while both McKinneys and family friend Josh Mullins are charged with multiple counts of evidence tampering for allegedly trying to cover up the crime.

Floyd County Commonwealth’s Attorney Brent Turner requested a continuance in the case, saying not all of the DNA evidence has come back from the state crime lab. Michael McKinney’s attorney, Terry Dean Jacobs, and Mullins’ attorney, Whitney O’Neal, both agreed with delaying the trial, but asked the court to release their clients from home incarceration and drug testing requirements.

However, one of M.K. McKinney’s attorneys, Randy O’Neal, objected to any further delay in the case.

In the end, that one objection was all it took for Special Judge Eddy Coleman to make up his mind.

“Well, since Mr. [M.K.] McKinney objected to the trial being continued, it won’t be,” Judge Coleman said. “See you all on May 11.”

Coleman then thanked the parties and left the courtroom.

In his order filed after the hearing, the judge also denied the motions to release Michael McKinney and Josh Mullins from home incarceration.

There is still time for other issues to arise that could delay the case, and several sources close to the case tell Mountain Top News that they believe there is a good chance the trial could still be delayed. But as it stands now, jury selection will begin May 11. The trial is expected to last 3-to-4 weeks.

You can watch a full livestream of the hearing on our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/MountainTopMediaNews/.

A copy of the judge’s order follows:

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PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — The Floyd County Coroner’s Office has identified the body found near Prestonsburg on Tuesday as a woman who had missing for more than three weeks.

Three Floyd County sheriff’s deputies searching the area for 38-year-old Kayla Reffett Tuesday afternoon found her body on the riverbank along Route 1428 near the mouth of Sugar Loaf Branch. She was pronounced dead by the coroner’s office at 2:50 p.m.

Reffett, of Blue River, had last been seen March 30 walking between Allen and Prestonsburg.

There is no word yet on a cause of death. Kentucky State Police is leading the investigation.

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Sixth-grader Ryland Robinson is in the top 10 of national competition.

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DAVID, Ky. — A Floyd County woman was arrested last week, when he attempt to burn grass ended up catching her mother’s house on fire.

Floyd County sheriff’s deputies were called around 3:30 p.m. Thursday to a house fire on Buckeye Branch of Blue River Road at David, due to suspected arson.

There, they spoke with Kayla Combs, who told them she was trying to burn grass away from her mother’s house, when the fire spread and ignited the structure. From there, the fire spread up a hillside and was threatening homes on Triple S Hollow.

Firefighters from David, Prestonsburg and Middle Creek fire departments said the fire spread beyond their control and they requested help from the Kentucky Division of Forestry. The police report says the fire caused thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.

Kentucky is currently in its spring fire season, when it is illegal to set an outdoor fire from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Area officials have also stressed that fire danger is high right now, and several counties have implemented total burn bans, although Floyd County has not.

Combs was arrested and charged with third-degree arson and first-degree criminal mischief. Both charges are felonies, punishable by up to five years in prison.

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PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — A man who went on a prolonged profanity-filled outburst in the middle of a court hearing last September has now been indicted for the tirade.

Jonathan Joseph Howell, 44, of Auxier, was arrested back in August for sending threats to a postal worker, then charged with witness intimidation for trying to get the postal worker to change his testimony.

During a preliminary hearing for the witness intimidation charge on Sept. 3, he was removed from the courtroom for an outburst, then continued to disrupt court by banging on the walls in his courthouse holding cell.

Howell appeared in court by video Sept. 10 for a contempt hearing for that outburst, and when District Judge Jimmy “Blue” Marcum announced he would hold him and sentence him to 90 days in jail, he interrupted the judge and began screaming and cursing for more than two minutes, calling himself “Jehovah” and referring to the judge and attorneys as “kangaroos.”

What he did not give Marcum a chance to say is that the sentence would be probated as long as he behaved in court. Instead, the judge decided to extend the sentence to six months, not probated, following the tirade.

But now Howell is facing felony charges for the outburst on top of the contempt finding. A grand jury indicted him on charges of retaliating against a participant in a legal process for threatening judge, as well as first-degree persistent felony offender.

The retaliation charge is usually punishable by 1-to-5 years in prison, but the persistent felony offender charge could enhance that sentence to 10-to-20 years.

Howell continues to be held in the Floyd County jail.

A video of the contempt hearing follows:

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PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — A Floyd County man was arrested after his wife said he assaulted her with his fists and a remote control.

The case began just before 3 a.m. Tuesday, when a Prestonsburg Police officer spotted a car with a broken windshield and one working headline circling the Court Street and North Lake Drive area several times. He stopped the car on Arnold Avenue, in front of the library.

The woman driving the car got out and said she was looking for her husband, Ruben Dario Garcia, 26, of Prestonsburg, who she accused of assaulting her earlier. The officer wrote in his report the woman had cuts and bruises around her eyes and nose, and that her nose appeared to be broken.

The woman told police the couple had been arguing while sitting in their car outside their home, when Garcia got out of the car and punched the windshield, shattering it. She said they settled the argument and went to bed, but said Garcia then hit her in the mouth while she was lying in bed. After she got up, she said he began hitting her in the face with the remote control and his hands, until she was able to get in her car to get away from him.

After that, she said she saw him walking away from their apartment, and she had been driving around trying to find him.

Police were not able to locate him until after 10:30 p.m., when he was spotted walking along Porter Street.

Garcia was arrested on a charge of second-degree assault, a felony punishable by 5-to-10 years in prison. He is being held in the Floyd County Detention Center on a $25,000 cash bond.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Holocaust survivor and longtime leader of the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, John Rosenberg, is featured on a new episode of the Legal Services Corporation’s (LSC) podcast, “Talk Justice.” LSC President Ron Flagg speaks with Rosenberg about his memories of Nazi Germany, becoming a lawyer in the United States, working for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division and earning the trust of his Eastern Kentucky community.  

Rosenberg said he remembers being 7 years old in 1938, watching Nazis destroy his synagogue in the middle of the night — the night now known as Kristallnacht. The synagogue was adjacent to his family’s apartment building, and the dynamite in the synagogue also damaged their home.  

“I remember that pretty vividly,” Rosenberg said. “The next morning when I woke up, there was a knock on the door and these two Gestapo agents came to arrest my father.”  

His father, a teacher, was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp along with 125 other men from their community. In the 17 days he spent there, 25 of the men died. Upon his release, the Rosenberg family was given 30 days to leave Germany. They spent a year in an internment camp in Holland, then came to the United States to start a new life.   

Rosenberg said that his family felt very grateful to be in the United States, even as they struggled to find work and make ends meet. His parents instilled in him this gratitude, along with a belief in justice.  

“Judaism teaches you that justice is the most important thing that we can do, and we want to do what we can to help repair the world, “ Rosenberg said. “And so, I think that’s been part of our family history.”  

Rosenberg later joined the U.S. Air Force, then studied law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He witnessed segregation as he grew up in the South and thought that he would like to help change things. He went to work at the DOJ Civil Rights Division in 1962, and made significant contributions to civil rights through his litigation work for eight years there. 

“It was a grand experience for me,” Rosenberg said. “I learned to try big cases, small cases. I was involved in a number of major civil rights litigation, and it was really a wonderful opportunity for me to become a very good trial lawyer.” 

“It’s quite something to be able to represent the United States in court with that history of ours,” he added.  

In 1970, Rosenberg and his wife, Jean, were on a road trip camping in National Parks when they got a call from his DOJ colleague Terry Lenzner, who was now at the Office of Economic Opportunity.  

“He told me about this group in Charleston, West Virginia and in Prestonsburg, Kentucky — of all places — that were doing public interest work, but were having some financial issues,” said Rosenberg. “And he was interested in funding that group to look at more of the symptomatic issues of poverty in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia and the coal fields and [said] that they needed a new director in Kentucky.”  

That director would be Rosenberg. It got off to a rocky start. He explained they had trouble finding a landlord who would rent them office space, and they clashed with the local bar association.  

But the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, also known as AppalRed Legal Aid, kept going and took on cases to help coal miners and their families. They helped people who were being impacted by the harmful effects of strip-mining.  

Over time, AppalReD – which receives a portion of its funding through grants from LSC – grew, and the slate of services evolved to include legal help for survivors of domestic violence and veterans, as well as assistance with divorces, housing matters, expungements and disaster recovery. 

Rosenberg said that he has seen bipartisan Congressional support for funding for civil legal services grow over the years, and he attributes some of this to the community-level connections that organizations like AppalRed are making across the country.  

“It’s really having connections in the community where you are, where folks realize how important having representation is,” he said. “At home at AppalRed, I’m really proud of the fact that we’ve got more and more lawyers who are from the region who are living [there], who are doing the good work.”  

Rosenberg retired from AppalRed in 2002. Despite the progress, Rosenberg thinks about the justice gap and the large number of people who still can’t get help with their civil legal problems. LSC grantees turn away half of the eligible clients who seek their help due to a lack of resources.  

“I think it’s just crucial that people [receive help] — that’s part of who we are, part of what legal service is all about, part of why I’ve been so proud of what my program has done and what other programs have done,” Rosenberg said. “It’s been terrific, and I’d like to say I hope I’m still a part of it.”  

The American Bar Association (ABA) is awarding Rosenberg the 2026 ABA Medal for his distinguished service. 

To hear more from this conversation with Rosenberg, listen to the full episode of Talk Justice online, on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.        

Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is an independent nonprofit established by Congress in 1974. For more than 50 years, LSC has provided financial support for civil legal aid to low-income Americans. The Corporation currently provides funding to 129 independent nonprofit legal aid programs in every state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.  

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PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — A Floyd County man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman eight months ago.

Austin Reahard, 31, of Prestonsburg, is accused of grabbing the woman by the shoulders as she walked out of a Prestonsburg restaurant August 29 and shoving her to the ground. The woman hit the ground with such force that the arrest warrant says she suffered a fractured vertebra.

Reahard is now charged with second-degree assault, a felony punishable by 5-to-10 years in prison. He was released from jail on an unsecured $25,000 bond.

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