AG: Man accused of killing Lexington woman in high-speed car crash will face prosecution
After a local judge’s controversial dismissal of a Lexington murder case, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced Friday that Cornell Denmark Thomas II will face prosecution after all.
Previously, Thomas, aged 37, was charged with wanton murder in a June 2020 car crash near Leestown Road that killed Tammy Botkin, a 50-year-old Lexington woman.
At the time, Botkin’s car caught fire and Thomas was accused of fleeing the scene before being caught by police. Botkin, a retired Fayette County schools employee, was pronounced dead at the scene.
In 2023, Judge Julie Muth Goodman dismissed the murder case against Thomas, arguing he was overcharged because of his race. Thomas is Black. Fayette County’s Commonwealth Attorney Kim Baird, who is also Black, sought to overrule Goodman’s dismissal, and in June of 2024, Coleman joined that effort.
On Friday, Dec. 19, Coleman’s office announced in a news release that Kentucky’s Court of Appeals had officially vacated Goodman’s order in the Thomas case with a 108-page decision. A new trial has been ordered.
The opinion said Goodman’s order was “fraught with legal errors and abuses of both its discretion and its authority.”
The appeals court also said Goodman should recuse herself from the case because “it is difficult to imagine that this trial judge is capable of an unbiased adjudication of the Commonwealth’s prosecution” of Thomas.
“In our opinion, the trial court did exceed that high degree of antagonism toward the prosecutor, making a fair trial impossible,” the opinion stated.
In a statement, Coleman said juries should decide guilt.
“In a major victory for the rule of law, the Court of Appeals forcefully identified the problems in the Fayette Circuit courtroom that denied the Botkin family the justice they deserve,” Coleman said in the release.
“As a prosecutor and a Black woman, I was shocked when the judge accused my office, and me specifically, of a racially motivated prosecution,” Baird said in the release. “I swore an oath to uphold the law, and to treat every individual fairly and with respect. That’s exactly what I do every day.”
“My team and I look forward to prosecuting this case as quickly as possible in front of an impartial judge and delivering long-awaited justice,” Baird’s statement reads in part.
Reached by phone late Friday afternoon, Goodman said it would be unethical to comment on a pending case.
“I can’t comment,” Goodman said.
Reporter Karla Ward contributed to the story.
This story was originally published December 19, 2025 at 4:42 PM.