Witnesses were uncooperative. Lexington man gets 5 years in prison in girl’s killing.

A Lexington man was sentenced Friday to five years in prison in connection with the 2014 shooting death of an 18-year-old who wasn’t the intended target.

Allen Charles William Burgess, 25, entered an Alford plea in July to an amended charge of criminal facilitation to murder Kieara Nicole Green.

Burgess was initially indicted on a charge of murder, but prosecutors agreed to a reduced charge because witnesses possibly needed to testify at trial were uncooperative.

Defendants who enter an Alford plea do not admit guilt but acknowledge there is enough evidence to convict them.

Green was among four young women injured when multiple shots were fired into a home on a Scottsdale Circle on June 30, 2014. Green died from injuries two days later, but the other three victims recovered.

Three counts of assault were dismissed. Fayette Circuit Judge Lucy VanMeter ordered Burgess to pay $4,485 in funeral expenses.

Burgess remains in jail on a pending robbery charge. And he is scheduled to be sentenced next week on a charge of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.

Police said Burgess had a long-standing feud with a man who was inside the Scottsdale Circle home at the time of the shooting.

Burgess was tied to the shooting after police found shell casings and a baseball cap in the yard next door to the shooting.

DNA found on the cap matched Burgess’s genetic profile, and the bullet that killed Green was fired from a 9mm handgun that police found on Burgess.

Green had graduated from The Providence School in Jessamine County only weeks before she was fatally shot.

Her mother previously told Burgess that she forgave him despite what he put her family through. Green’s mother, Dinah Walker of Nicholasville, told Burgess in court to “get hold of yourself. 

“Get to know Jesus. Let him get hold of your life,” Walker said.

At the time he entered his plea in July, Burgess was already serving a one-year sentence after pleading guilty to wanton endangerment, fleeing or evading police and possession of a controlled substance in Bourbon County.

In that case, Burgess was arrested by Paris police in August 2015 after he nearly ran head-on into a truck after running a stop sign.

This story was originally published December 7, 2018 at 12:28 PM.