Ballistics network links gun found in Ohio to man charged with Lexington murder
A national ballistics network was utilized to connect a suspect who fled to Ohio and then New York after he allegedly shot and killed a 31-year-old Lexington man in February.
During a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Jeremy Adkins, a detective with the Lexington Police Department, testified against 28-year-old Kyshawn Owens who is charged with the murder of Chadwick Boone.
Owens faces additional charges of evidence tampering and convicted felon in possession of a handgun, according to court documents.
Adkins testified during the hearing that officers were called to a restaurant and bar on Feb. 3, where they found Boone with multiple gunshot wounds. Boone later died at the University of Kentucky Hospital.
Surveillance cameras from the bar and multiple other businesses show Owens and Boone at the establishment before they began to argue verbally and then psychically, Adkins testified.
Owens allegedly brandished a handgun and fired shots at Boone before he fled the scene and was picked up by a ride-share service.
Owens traveled to Reading, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, where he was seen on surveillance footage disassembling a handgun before throwing it in a creek, according to Adkins. Local police found the handgun and traced the ballistics through the National Integrated Ballistic Network which is designed to take firearms evidence from different scenes, analyze specific bullet markings and draw links together.
The police were able to connect the firearm back to Owens, and Lexington police were notified. From there, evidence showed Owens purchased a Greyhound bus ticket which took him to Yonkers, New York, according to Adkins.
Owens was arrested in New York on June 7, and held in the Westchester County Jail there, police said.
Fayette District Judge Lindsay Hughes Thurston found probable cause against Owens, and sent his case to a grand jury. His bond remains at $760,000.
