Floyd County defendant in high-profile Spradlin murder case released on bail
The Floyd County man charged and jailed for more than a year for allegedly murdering 38-year-old Amber Spradlin been released on bail.
A pair of receipts totaling $450,340 were posted on the Pike County Circuit docket in the case against Michael “M.K.” McKinney III, 25, who has been charged with stabbing Spradlin 11 times in June 2023 at the home of his father, Michael McKinney II, a prominent Prestonsburg dentist.
The Floyd County Detention Center confirmed late Thursday afternoon that McKinney has been released.
Pike Circuit Judge Eddy Coleman reduced the younger McKinney’s bail Dec. 12 to $5 million, which can be secured with a $500,000 property bond plus $4.5 million, 10% of which was required in cash.
The $450,000 plus court fees paid by check Thursday satisfies the cash bail. It remains unclear whether the property bond has been secured. In Kentucky, real property must equal double the property bond amount, meaning McKinney would have to post collateral worth $1 million or more — a sum his attorneys have said in prior court filings is attainable.
He was released Thursday, jail officials confirmed. McKinney’s attorney did not immediately respond to a Herald-Leader request for comment.
His attorney has sought a bail reduction twice in the last two months after the trial, slated to get underway Dec. 1, was delayed to allow for additional blood evidence testing at the state crime lab.
McKinney has been held on a $5 million bond since he was arrested last year, despite repeated bond hearings and denied motions to reduce the bail requirements. On Dec. 1, Judge Coleman relented, first reducing the bail requirements to $1 million in property and $400,000 in cash before adjusting the property and cash amounts Dec. 12.
Spradlin was a restaurant hostess who was raised by her grandparents after her own mother was murdered when she was young. Her murder shocked the close-knit Eastern Kentucky community, especially after it took investigators more than a year to file charges in the case.
Debbie Hall, Spradlin’s cousin and a spokesperson for her family, was emotional when reached by phone Thursday. She said she and the family are disappointed to learn McKinney was being released, but remain confident he is responsible for Spradlin’s murder.
“He’s a violent person,” Hall said. “He attacked Amber, and if anybody knows Amber, she was a sweetheart. There was no reason at all for anybody to ever do anything like that to her.”
M.K.’s father, McKinney II, 57, and a friend of the family, Josh Mullins, 25, have also been charged in connection to Spradlin’s murder. Prosecutors say they helped clean up and destroy evidence before police arrived on the scene.
This story was originally published December 18, 2025 at 4:55 PM.
