By RONNIE ELLIS
GLASGOW — Steve Nunn, the former legislator and one-time gubernatorial candidate from Glasgow, entered a plea of not guilty to charges of murder through his attorney Friday in Fayette District Court.
His attorney, Astrida Lemkins, asked Judge Joseph Bouvier to allow Nunn, “a long-standing member of the community,” to post bond but her request was denied in the brief arraignment hearing which lasted less than five minutes.
Nunn appeared by video from the jail and did not speak during the proceeding.
Nunn, 56, is charged with the shooting death of his former fiancée, 29-year-old Amanda Ross. She was found shot last Friday morning outside her Lexington townhouse and died a short time later. Last March, Ross charged Nunn struck her multiple times in her face during a February altercation in her home and Nunn was placed under a domestic violence order.
When Lemkins asked Bouvier to consider bond Friday, Deputy County Attorney Gene Dauer responded: “As I’m sure you are aware, this will be a capital case and we feel bond is not permissible.”
Bouvier agreed and scheduled a preliminary hearing for Friday at 8:30 a.m. Nunn could waive that hearing which is to determine if the case should be sent to the grand jury.
Nunn also faces six wanton endangerment charges in Hart County for brandishing a weapon at the time of his arrest there last Friday. Police found Nunn with his wrists cut in the small country cemetery where his parents, the former Gov. Louie Nunn and his wife, Beula, are buried. Those will have to wait until the murder charge is resolved, Lemkins told reporters after Friday’s arraignment.
Nunn was transferred Thursday night from the Hart County Jail to Lexington where he is housed in an individual cell away from the general population, Lemkins said. She said he is undergoing assessment but she would not comment on whether Nunn is considered suicidal.
She said Nunn is doing “as well as can be expected” and has received visits from some members of his family. She said he is being treated “the same as anyone else” in the Fayette County jail.
In a lengthy interview with reporters after the hearing, Lemkins said she’s known Nunn for years and still thinks Kentucky’s system of entering domestic violence orders based on preponderance of evidence rather than beyond a reasonable doubt – a process she called “almost a rubber stamp” – contributed to Friday’s events.
“I think it was an accumulation of things, not having a job and not having a life, and having a DVO on your record – it’s devastating,” she said.
Lemkins she has received threatening calls from people “wishing horrible evil on me” because of similar comments she made to a reporter last weekend.
She said changes to the DVO process might have saved a life and “it certainly led to his own (Nunn's) attempted suicide.”
“It hurt him in many ways and that’s why these DVOs need to be held to a higher standard because they can destroy someone’s life,” Lemkins said.
Lemkins dismissed the significance of a letter Louie Nunn wrote to his son in 1994 accusing the younger Nunn of abuse and submitted as an exhibit in the elder Nunn’s 1995 divorce, saying parties in divorce proceedings “say all kinds of things.” She said she is presently Nunn’s only attorney.
She said she has never tried a murder case but said she feels comfortable representing someone charged with murder.
Lemkins said “it is very possible” she will seek a change of venue, citing her concern about publicity, especially in Fayette County – which she described as “a very unforgiving community” – where Ross grew up and where the crime occurred.
“My sympathies are with the Ross family,” Lemkins said. “There’s never an excuse or justification for murder. Whoever did this – we haven’t gone to a trial yet – there’s no justification for it. But at the same time I can see how things could unravel for someone.”
RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.
