Kentucky county official acquitted of sensational murder now faces burglary charge
A former Kentucky county official acquitted in a high-profile murder case has been arrested for allegedly taking part in a burglary.
Jerry Wayne Dean, 76, who served three terms as clerk in Jackson County, was arrested late Wednesday with three other people, according to court citations.
Deputy Sheriff James Weaver said in the citations that when he responded to a call about a possible burglary in McKee at 10:14 p.m., witnesses told him two people had asked them if a house in the neighborhood was for sale or rent, then took items from the house and left in an extended-cab pickup truck.
When police later stopped the truck off U.S. 421, Dean was driving and Larry Felton, Glenn Hubbard and Renee Shepherd, also identified in the court record as Jessica Renee Shepherd-Daugherty, were passengers, Weaver said in the citation.
The four admitted being at the house that was burglarized, the citation said.
They were charged with second-degree burglary. Dean was released from jail Thursday on a $5,000 surety bond, according to a court record.
Dean was county clerk when he was charged with shooting and killing Audrey Marcum in November 2001.
Marcum was a former employee in Dean’s office who had sued him over alleged sexual harassment. Two days before she was to give a deposition in the case, someone shot her through the lungs with a high-powered rifle as she got out of her car in the garage of her home.
Dean denied shooting Marcum, and a jury in Richmond acquitted him in February 2004.
Dean had been popular in the county, losing his bid for a fourth term in the May 2002 Republican primary by just 21 votes while under indictment and home incarceration.
He lost another bid for the office in 2010 by a wide margin.
The court docket did not list an attorney for Dean Friday, and he could not be reached for comment.
