Cousin of murder victim Amber Spradlin enters race against EKY county judge-executive
The Eastern Kentucky doctor who became a vocal advocate for police reform after the 2023 fatal stabbing of her cousin in Prestonsburg is entering the race for Floyd County judge-executive.
Debbie Hall, 58, a Prestonsburg physician, filed with the Floyd County clerk’s office Nov. 24 to run as a Republican against Independent Judge-Executive Robbie Williams in next year’s general election. Hall has been critical of Williams, the incumbent, in the wake of the murder of Amber Spradlin, highlighting his role in reorganizing the county’s 911 dispatch center before her death.
Hall is the cousin of Spradlin, the 38-year-old woman who was found dead of multiple stab wounds at the home of a prominent Prestonsburg dentist in June 2023. After the murder, Hall helped launch a community action group called Justice for Amber that pressured local authorities to make arrests in the case. The group has also accused city and county leaders of failing to adequately respond to repeated 911 calls from the home that night.
Police have accused Michael “M.K.” McKinney III, 25, of murdering Spradlin. His father, Prestonsburg dentist Michael K. McKinney II, 57, and family friend Josh Mullins, 25, have also been charged with tampering with evidence. The three were arrested more than a year after the killing, and Hall has since lobbied for a bill in Frankfort to speed up the criminal justice system by boosting funding for the Kentucky State Police crime lab saddled with an evidentiary backlog.
The murder trial was set to get underway against M.K. McKinney next week, but was postponed earlier this month due to some blood evidence still awaiting DNA testing.
“If you’re going to complain a lot, you ought to put some actions behind your words,” Hall said Monday afternoon after filing for office.
Williams, 57, who is running for his third term as judge-executive, is one of several city and county officials named in a civil lawsuit the Spradlin family filed last year accusing leaders of failing to keep adequate staffing and policies in place at a joint, city-county 911 dispatch center.
At least two 911 calls were made from the McKinney home the night of Spradlin’s murder. Police weren’t dispatched after the first call was placed because the elder McKinney intervened, the lawsuit claims. Spradlin is still believed to have been alive at that time, according to the suit.
Hall, who is not a direct party in the civil suit, has said “it’s very likely Amber would still be alive today” if police had responded to the first call.
The Floyd County Fiscal Court voted on Williams’ recommendation to transfer 911 communications from a KSP post in Pikeville to the joint, city-county venture in December 2022, about six months before Spradlin’s murder. That decision was not widely publicized, Hall said Monday, but it serves as an example of the kind of key public policies that need more public scrutiny.
“I want to know where the tax dollars are being spent,” Hall said. “ I want to know who’s getting awarded the contracts — just more transparency for people out in the county to know what’s going on with our government.”
Williams declined to comment Tuesday on Hall’s decision to enter the race or the criticisms she has leveled against him, but he has remained supportive of local control over emergency service dispatch. The 911 communications center has adopted modern, computer-aided systems not in place under KSP control, according to Prestonsburg city officials.
Hall and Williams clashed publicly last year when the local physician accused the judge-executive of spreading a rumor she was involved in an alleged murder-for-hire plot against M.K. McKinney.
During the public comment portion of a fiscal court meeting in September 2024, Hall said she received a call from an inmate at the Floyd County Detention Center who asked her for money to bail him out of jail. In the recorded call, which occurred a few months before any arrests were made in the Spradlin case, she told the inmate she hoped he would remain at the detention center until M.K. McKinney was jailed.
Hall said a recording of the call was used by Williams to damage her character during the September 2024 hearing.
“Only in Eastern Kentucky would the Floyd County judge-executive be trying so hard to make a murder victim’s family member look like a criminal,” Hall said at the hearing.
Williams said he had been anonymously given a recording of the call, but denied spreading allegations about Hall. Neither Hall nor Williams have taken legal action over the dispute.
Hall said she does not want her campaign for judge-executive to be solely about her cousin’s murder and declined to discuss specific qualms she has with city and county officials. She said running for office will be a “learning curve” and pledged to announce a platform soon.
She did say her experience as a family physician has demonstrated the need for improved public transportation in the region and additional scrutiny over public funding for drug addiction recovery centers. Creating a thriving local economy that can attract major, high-wage industries will be one of her top priorities, she added.
“I’d just like to see the county move forward and see us be able to catch up with other places in the state and in the nation, eventually,” she said. “We seem to be so far behind on things here in Eastern Kentucky.”
In an emailed statement to the Herald-Leader, Williams said he is proud of his accomplishments as judge-executive, including improved economic development projects and a fiscally sound budget. He pledged to continue working hard on behalf of all county residents.
“We have managed to do great things for Floyd County,” he wrote. “It is my goal to foster an environment that creates a better quality of life for all Floyd Countians.”
