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  • Timothy Prater, Antonio Turner and Joseph Denning have been lodged in the Laurel County Correctional Center on charges connected to their alleged involvement in the murder for hire scheme.

    Prater Turner Denning
February 19, 2013

More suspects arrested in failed murder scheme

Turner and Denning hail from Somerset

By CHRIS HARRIS and JANIE SLAVEN CNHI News Service

SOMERSET —  Two additional arrests have been made in an alleged murder conspiracy plot that unfolded more than a week ago in McCreary County.

    All three of the men charged with attacking Debbie Taylor of Pine Knot are from Somerset. Timothy Prater, 30, was the first to be taken into custody by Kentucky State Police (KSP) on February 8, the day after the attack.

    Last Tuesday, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department located the men who allegedly participated in the assault with Prater. Joseph R. Denning, 19, and Antonio A. Turner, 21, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree complicity to commit robbery, and first-degree unlawful imprisonment, according to KSP and the Pulaski Sheriff’s office.

    Pulaski County Sheriff Todd Wood said that the first arrest was made at Western Hill Apartments in Somerset, working with the U.S. Marshall’s Fugitive Task Force. Information gathered at that site was then used to track down the other suspect (Turner) at a residence on Poplar Estates Road, said Wood.

    Both subjects were lodged in the Pulaski County Detention Center before being transferred to a correctional facility in Laurel County, according to Pulaski Jailer Mike Harris.

    The three men allegedly accosted Taylor off Richard Stephens Road as she walked from her home to her vehicle on her way to work around 5:30 a.m. on the morning of February 7. Taylor was handcuffed and stunned with a taser device prior to the intervention of neighbors, who had noticed a strange gold Honda in the area.

    According to one of the neighbors, George “Danny” Lay, Prater was masked and identified himself as an FBI agent but refused to show any identification. The other two suspects wore coats with hoods drawn tight around their faces. All wore dark clothing. The men left in the Honda when the neighbors refused to leave and prepared to call authorities.

    The Honda was traced to Prater, who told police that he was paid $1,500 to kill Taylor by Regina Stephens of Pine Knot. Prater, a bartender, had worked with Stephens, a waitress, at Guthrie’s River House in Burnside.

    Stephens was found dead in her home Friday night (February 8) as officers attempted to serve an arrest warrant on conspiracy to commit murder charges. Stephens died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

    A motive has not been released as of yet, nor a connection between Prater and the other two suspects to be arrested last week.

    In a jailhouse interview with WKYT/WYMT, Prater claimed he was involved only to “help” Debbie Taylor.

    “My intent was to protect her. The guys I thought could help actually had a different intent and now I’m in here because of it,” Prater is quoted as saying. “I thought if I was in the hot seat then no one else would have been considered to hurt her.”

    Lay disputes Prater’s claim.         “I do believe with all my heart that he [Prater] intended to kill her,” Lay said. “The only thing that stopped him was that he thought I had a gun.”

    Kentucky State Police Detective Billy Correll is leading the ongoing investigation.

    Prater, Denning and Turner have all been arraigned in McCreary District Court and remain lodged in the Laurel County Correctional Center. While Prater’s bond is not listed, Denning and Turner are each under $100,000 cash bonds.

    A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for this Thursday at 9 a.m.

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