PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — A Floyd County jury has recommended a 20-year sentence for a man who shot and killed another man near the Auxier bridge one year ago.

Larry Johnson, 68, of Auxier, was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter on Wednesday, for the shooting death of Steven Adkins, 48, of Prestonsburg.

Witnesses testified that Johnson was driving along the bridge on April 25, 2025, when he spotted Adkins.
Johnson got out of his car and approached Adkins, and the two began fighting. Afterwards, Johnson retrieved his gun from his car and shot Adkins.

The jury had five options in the case — finding Johnson not guilty or guilty of murder, first-degree manslaughter, second-degree manslaughter or reckless homicide. By finding him guilty of first-degree manslaughter, the jury determined that Johnson did not have a legitimate excuse of self-defense.

After finding Johnson guilty of the second-most serious charge he was facing, the jury then recommended the maximum penalty for the charge — 20 years.

Johnson will be back in court June 4 for formal sentencing.

The post Floyd man found guilty of manslaughter for shooting at Auxier bridge last year appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. — A Pike County man has been indicted, following a shooting death back in April.

Paul David Coleman, 58, of Meta, was indicted Wednesday by a Pike County grand jury on a charge of second-degree manslaughter.

The charge stems from an incident on April 5, when police say Coleman was involved in an altercation with Greeley “Bacon” Hurley, 30, of Stopover, in a business parking lot along Route 319 at Belfry, when Hurley was shot. He was pronounced dead when he arrived at Tug Valley ARH.

No arrests were made immediately following the shooting. At the time, Kentucky State Police said they would present the results of their investigation to a grand jury to consider whether or not to file criminal charges.

A person can be charged with second-degree manslaughter for wantonly causing the death of another person. It carries a sentence of 5-to-10 years in prison if convicted.

Coleman is not currently in custody, but the special prosecutor over the case has asked that a warrant be issued for his arrest.

Coleman is currently on bond after being charged with theft in Floyd County last week. He is scheduled to be arraigned in that case Dec. 10.

The post Pike man charged with manslaughter for April shooting death appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

JACKSON, Ky. — For six days, Felicia Gross kept up her portrayal of a mother frantic to find her missing 10-year-old son. But on Tuesday, that ruse fell apart.

Court records are painting a picture of the events that led to Jayden Spicer’s death.

Spicer was believed to have disappeared from his home during the early morning hours of Aug. 6. That prompted a weeklong search for the boy, which yielded no clues.

But during an interview with police on Tuesday, Gross confessed to giving her son a sleeping medication prior to putting him to bed Aug. 5. She further claims that the medicine caused him to have an medical emergency that killed him.

After his death, she told police she took his body to wooded area along Canoe Road, nearly 20 miles from her home. That’s where police found Spicer’s body on Tuesday, buried in a shallow grave.

She further told police she coached her other children about what to say during interviews with police.

Gross has now been charged with second-degree manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, evidence tampering, falsely reporting an incident, and two counts of witness tampering.

She is being held in the Kentucky River Regional Jail, in Hazard.

The post Police: Mother’s confession led police to Breathitt boy’s grave appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

SIDNEY, Ky. — A Pike County man has been charged with manslaughter, after another man was shot and killed over the weekend.

Police say that Clifford Triplett, 54, of Dix Fork, was at home early Sunday morning, when he got into a physical altercation with James Mounts, 50. During the struggle, Triplett told police that his gun accidentally went off, killing Mounts.

Triplett now faces a charge of second-degree manslaughter, a felony punishable by 5-to-10 years in prison.

He is being held without bond in the Pike County Detention Center.

The post Pike man charged with manslaughter following shooting death appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. — A Pike County man has been indicted on a manslaughter charge, following an overdose death back in March.

Jimmy Gage Adkins, 28, of Robinson Creek, was indicted by a Pike County grand jury on June 20 and arrested on Monday. He is charged with second-degree manslaughter and first-degree persistent felony offender for allegedly giving fentanyl to Christopher Chivers, 39, of Norton, Va., which resulted in his death.

Adkins has had five felony convictions in Pike County from 2019 to 2023. Second-degree manslaughter is typically punishable by 5-to-10 years in prison, but the persistent felony offender charge could enhance that to 10-to-20 years.

Adkins is currently being held in the Pike County jail on a $250,000 cash bond.

The post Pike man arrested for manslaughter following overdose death appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

ABINGDON, Va. — A federal inmate in southwestern Virginia will spend additional time in prison, after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter last October for the death of his cellmate.

Back in 2018, Samuel Silva, 48, was serving a 47-year sentence at U.S. Penitentiary Lee for armed carjacking charges out of New Mexico, when prison officials found his cellmate lying facedown in a pool of blood with a handmade knife protruding from the base of his skull. Silva and the other inmate had been locked in the cell alone when the discovery was made.

It was later discovered that the other inmate had been stabbed more than 150 times.

Silva was charged with murder, but at trial, he claimed that he acted in self-defense.

At trial, the jury found him not guilty of murder, but guilty of voluntary manslaughter.

During his sentencing hearing on Friday, U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski sentenced him to 15 years in prison, which was the maximum penalty allowed. The judge further ordered that the sentence will not begin until he finishes his current sentence, bringing his total sentence to 62 years.

The post Federal inmate gets additional 15 years for cellmate’s death appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. — A Pike County man has been sentenced on a charge related to the killing of his son.

Larry Harris, 63, of Elkhorn City, had been charged with murder, but he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter back in July after reaching an agreement with prosecutors.

Harris had maintained he shot his son, David Harris, 38, in self-defense back in March of 2022. Court records indicate he shot his son six times, including after he turned and tried to run away. He phoned 911 afterwards and told a dispatcher he did it because he was “tired of being beat and cussed at.” He also refused to administer first aid.

On Thursday, Harris was formally sentenced to serve 10 years in prison. He is currently being held in the Pike County Detention Center.

The post Pike man gets 10 years in shooting death of son appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

WISE, Va. — A Wise County man has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, over a 2019 tree cutting accident that resulted in a woman’s death.

Tony Curtis Osborne, 39, of Pound, entered his guilty plea on Wednesday.

In doing so, he admitted to cutting down a 30-foot tree from a hillside overlooking U.S. 23 on Feb. 2, 2019. The tree fell off the hillside and into traffic, where it crushed a car driven by Iris Walker. She died before medical help could arrive.

Osborne admitted that the tree was not on his property, he did not have permission to cut it down, and he took no precautions to protect passing drivers.

“Tony Osborne engaged in a highly dangerous activity with the obvious potential to harm or kill people driving down a busy highway,” Asst. Commonwealth’s Attorney Ken Lammers said. “It did exactly that.  Osborne is the sole reason that Iris Walker is dead, and for that killing he is now convicted of manslaughter.  He deserves this conviction. This man was engaged in the illegal harvesting of a tree from someone else’s land at a location where the risk to the lives of anyone who happened to be on the highway below was blatantly obvious.  Iris Walker didn’t deserve to be killed, and Osborne deserves to be held responsible for taking her life.”

He will be sentenced July 21.

The post Man pleads guilty to manslaughter for logging accident that killed woman appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. — One man is dead and another man is in jail, following a hit-and-run crash Saturday in Pikeville.

Cecil Norman Jr., 39, of Pikeville, died after being hit by a car on U.S. 23 near Pikeville High School around 9:30 p.m. Saturday. The car did not stop.

Police were able to track down their suspect, Chris Allen Salyer, 51, of Elkhorn City, just after 1 a.m. Monday.

According to Pikeville Police, Salyer fled to a home on East Keyser Heights after striking Norman. That’s where he was found, reportedly hiding in a locked bathroom. His car had significant damage to the front, including a broken windshield that was covered with black plastic.

Salyer reportedly gave police a statement about the incident, but no details have been released.

He is being held in the Pike County Detention Center on charges of manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.

The post Arrest made in deadly hit-and-run appeared first on Mountain Top Media.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. — Sixteen months after the crash that killed his girlfriend and unborn child, a Pike County man has been charged in their deaths.

Randy Adams, 29, of Pikeville, was indicted last week on charges of DUI and two counts of manslaughter.

The charges stem from a crash on U.S. 460 on April 30, 2020. Whitney Thacker and her unborn child died in the crash.

Adams is scheduled to appear in court for arraignment on Sept. 30.

The post Man involved in 2020 crash indicted on manslaughter charges appeared first on Mountain Top Media.