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| Ky. Killer's Wife Gets Early Release |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/07/2001 |
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The woman who accompanied her husband when he went to the home of a prosecutor and shot him to death has been released from jail early, authorities said. Patricia Vaughn left the Warren County Detention Center last week after Circuit Judge James G. Weddle granted her request for 'shock probation.' Weddle had originally sentenced Vaughn, 41, to four years after she pleaded guilty in March to facilitation to murder prosecutor Fred Capps as he was about to put her husband, Eddie Vaughn, on trial. But in his order this week, Weddle said Vaughn committed the crime under duress and that keeping her in jail would not serve justice. Capps was the prosecutor for Cumberland, Adair, Casey and Monroe counties when he was killed. Eddie Vaughn was to be tried for allegedly molesting a girl under age 12 when he burst into Capps' home the morning of June 5, 2000, firing an assault rifle. Capps was mortally wounded, but grabbed his own gun and returned fire. Both men died. Police charged Patricia Vaughn and James Vaughn, the brother of the assailant who also went to the house that day, with complicity to commit murder. They were outside during the shootout. In September, James Vaughn was acquitted of the charge. His attorneys had argued during the trial that he was afraid of his brother and feared for his life if he didn't cooperate. The early release for Patricia Vaughn surprised prosecutors and angered Capps' widow, Catherine. She and the couple's two children were in the home when Capps was killed. 'I heard glass breaking, glass crashing and pow, pow, pow, pow, it's just chaos,' she testified at James Vaughn's trial. 'I just (kept) thinking about my kids and hoping my kids are all right.' Shock probation refers to the release of an inmate after a relatively short time if the judge believes the time served has been sufficient punishment. |
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