‘No hatred towards you.’ In Lexington court, father speaks to man who killed his daughter
As James Edward Ragland II stood before a Fayette Circuit Court judge to receive a 10-year prison sentence for shooting and killing a 27-year-old woman outside a Lexington nightclub, the victim’s father had something to say.
“I’ve got no hatred towards you,” said Gerald Young, the father of Iesha Edwards, who was shot and killed outside the Fox Club on Winchester Road in January 2019. Young spoke directly to Ragland in court Monday morning after Ragland pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter over Edwards’ death.
“You’ve got a long road ahead of you in the joint, man, you hear me,” Young said in court, as he looked at the 31-year-old defendant from Detroit. “The best thing you can do is go in and get an education and get an understanding about yourself. You can’t change what happened in these streets.”
Young was speaking from personal experience: He was convicted of murder in Fayette County in 1998 and sentenced to death, according to court records. Four years later his death sentence was changed to life in prison. He was eligible for parole and has since been released, according to court records. He’ll be on parole for the rest of his life, according to state records.
Young said he’s been active in trying to help the youth of his community since getting out. He said he owns his own business and has stayed out of trouble. He hopes Ragland will use prison as an opportunity to improve himself.
“You killed my daughter, man,” Young said. “She ain’t ever coming back ... but how you come through this court and your journey through this system, I’ll know.”
Edwards’ death in 2019 was the result of a “large disorder” at a club previously called the Fox Club, investigators said previously. Police believed a fight between several men and women broke out inside the club and then moved outside, where the shooting occurred.
Several people were fighting in the parking lot when police arrived and Edwards was suffering from a gunshot wound, police said. She was taken to University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital but later died from her injuries, police said.
Ragland, 31, spoke in court Monday too. He read a letter he’d previously written about his case, in which he said he had acted stupidly and suffered repeated nightmares over the shooting.
“I can never rectify the life I took,” he said, apologizing to Edwards’ family. He also said he “will carry this hurt for the rest of my days.”
Young said he felt the letter was “sincere.”
Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Goodman, who handed down Ragland’s 10-year sentence, said she couldn’t put the situation into words “any better than that father did.”
“The one thing you could do for Mrs. Edwards and her family is to make something for yourself,” Goodman told Ragland in court. “... Get an education, use the mind that God has given you and make yourself a better person.”
Ragland had previously been charged with murder in the case but accepted a plea deal, reducing his charges and his sentence. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of wanton endangerment and one count of assault. He was sentenced to five years for each wanton endangerment charge, but Goodman decided to run those sentences at the same time as his manslaughter sentence.
His fourth-degree assault conviction carried a sentence of 30 days, but because Ragland already had more than 2.5 years of custody credit while waiting for his case to be resolved, he won’t have to serve any additional time for that charge.
Ragland’s attorney, Antonio Tuddles, asked if Ragland could be transferred to Michigan to serve his sentence. Prosecutors said they had no objection to that, but Goodman said it would ultimately be up to the state Department of Corrections.
Ragland wasn’t the only one charged in the shooting. Gaige Jessie Phillips, 32, still faces several charges in the case which include facilitating murder. He hasn’t pleaded guilty but was scheduled to appear in court at the same time as Ragland Monday. Phillips’ attorney told the court Monday that Phillips had been detained by federal officials.
Phillips is facing other charges in federal court and was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday after being indicted, according to court records.