Beech Tree News Network

MORGANTOWN — Four people accused of being involved in a double homicide in which the bodies of two people were found in a burned-out car off a rural Butler County road appeared in court Wednesday to be arraigned.

Charles "Cotton" Lindsey, 33, of Roundhill, was arraigned in Butler Circuit Court on two counts of murder and one count each of first-degree arson and tampering with physical evidence. 

Lindsey held a baseball cap as he was brought into the courtroom separately from other inmates who had court appearances Wednesday.

His court-appointed attorney, Sam Lowe of the Department of Public Advocacy, entered a not guilty plea on Lindsey's behalf.

Arlexis Kawai, 22, of Bowling Green, Helen L. Rone, 21, of Roundhill, and Kayla Danielle Ford, 27, of Edmonton pleaded not guilty to two counts of complicity to murder, two counts of facilitation of murder and one count each of first-degree complicity to arson, first-degree facilitation of arson and tampering with physical evidence.

Lindsey and Rone are siblings, Ford was in a relationship with Lindsey and Kawai was in a relationship with Rone, according to prior court testimony.

Lowe represented Lindsey's co-defendants at their arraignments, but they will be represented by other public defenders as the cases proceed.

Butler Circuit Judge Ronnie Dortch overruled requests by Lowe to modify each co-defendant's bond.

Kawai remains in Warren County Regional Jail on $100,000 cash bond. Ford and Rone are in Butler County Jail on $100,000 cash bond. Lindsey is being held without bond in Butler County Jail.

Because the case involves multiple homicide victims and an allegation that another violent crime was committed during the course of the homicide, prosecutors can choose to seek the death penalty or another enhanced punishment sanctioned by state law, including life in prison without parole or life with no chance at parole for at least 25 years.

Butler County Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Coleman said recently that his office is "looking strongly" at whether to file a notice of aggravating factors that would enable him to seek an enhanced penalty.

The bodies were found Nov. 9 in a car in the 700 block of Region-Reedyville Road that had been set on fire. 

Detective Graham Rutherford of the Kentucky State Police testified in a November preliminary hearing that the bodies had been "burned beyond recognition and that one of the bodies had a gunshot wound to the head.

Through interviews with dozens of people, Lindsey's name came up several times during the investigation.

"A cousin of one of the victims said she believed Mr. Lindsey might have knowledge or motive," Rutherford testified.

Police have not released the identities of the two bodies pending the results of forensic testing to confirm the identities. 

Lindsey claimed to have traveled with Rone to Tennessee to marry Ford on the day the bodies were found, but Rutherford said enough time passed that day between the 911 call and when Rone paid with cash for a room at the Days Inn in White House, Tenn. for the co-defendants to have traveled from the crime scene to the hotel.

Ford and Rone said in police interviews that they remembered seeing Lindsey leave Rone's mother's house on Nov. 9 and that they traveled with Kawai afterward to Region-Reedyville Road, where they met Lindsey, Rutherford testified.

Ford also reportedly told police she saw Lindsey with a can of lighter fluid.

The group traveled from Region-Reedyville Road to the Corner Market in Roundhill, where Lindsey reported divulged that he had shot the two people police would later discover, according to prior testimony.

Rutherford said that Lindsey claimed during one police interview that a different perpetrator committed the crimes, and that the two people were shot soon after an argument with the unknown perpetrator. Lindsey provided a name to police, who were unable to locate the person, Rutherford testified.

The four co-defendants are set to return to court March 14 for a pretrial conference.

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Date: 01-05-2017

By Justin Story

Bowling Green Daily News

Kentucky Press News Service