Matt Bevin owes crime victims an apology and full explanation for his pardons
On Sept. 26, 1993, Betty Carnes, a married mother of three young girls, was working a 12-hour shift at a plant in Barbourville. She didn’t come home, so the family became anxious and started efforts to find her. Little did they expect the search to reveal that their mother was brutally murdered and disposed of in toxic waste. This horrible news created a series of events that continuously tore at the heart of family, friends and community. After years of trials, court reviews, and parole board hearings, they believed that they and Betty could rest in piece.
As hard as all previous events were, there was no way to prepare for what would transpire 26 years later. On his way out of the governor’s office, Matt Bevin pardoned and commuted the sentence of Delmar Partin, and sent him home to be neighbors with the victims. Is there justification for Gov. Bevin’s exercise of immense powers? You be the judge.
The trial of Delmar Partin was held in Knox Circuit Court, and I, as Commonwealth’s Attorney for the 27th Judicial Circuit, was the prosecutor in the case. It is difficult for me to recite the events that transpired for I deeply regret discussing evidence that renews pain for this wonderful family. I do this only because Gov. Matt Bevin has set in motion a chain of events that are unjustified and based on erroneous information. This conduct creates questions that Bevin should be willing and required to answer.
Consider facts that are not in dispute. Carnes and Partin worked together at the lab in Tremco, where they make insulation for car windshields. They had a short affair and Betty terminated it and returned to her family. Partin could not accept this rejection. He put numerous cards in Betty’s locker at work, some begging and others not nice at all. Workers noticed how nervous and fearful she seemed. On Sept. 26, she was working in the lab alone on a graveyard shift and never returned home. After discovery of her body in a toxic metal drum, an investigation commenced. She had been brutally beaten in the face and top of her head. Her head had been severed from her body by a series of knife cuts around her neck, and two chops with a hand ax to her spinal cord.
After an intense search in the lab, Kentucky State Police found a few old blood stains but nothing that would be expected from such a brutal beating and beheading. Later it was learned that the defendant liked to go to Florida and hunt alligators. He had created a tool, a ligature, that allowed him to loop a piano wire around the head of the gator and immobilize it long enough for him to shoot it. Dr George Nichols, State Forensic Pathologist, explained that Betty had some kind of ligature around her neck that prevented blood flow to the head. This would prevent any blood flow from an injury. Partin used his skills in killing an alligator to kill Betty Partin.
It was easy to conclude from all the evidence that Partin could not accept rejection from Betty. He wanted her to look at him as he beat her to death and he had thought of this murder long enough to sneak a hatchet into the lab to sever her spine, a tool used to immobilize gators that immobilize her and prevent dripping blood. He knew that disposing her body in 55-gallon drum destined for a toxic land field would hide his crime forever. He had no concerns other than himself. Let the family, friends and community worry about Betty and what happened to her. It was, nearly, a perfect crime.
At trial the defendant was represented by two of Kentucky’s most respected and accomplished attorneys. A jury of his peers found him guilty and sentenced him to complete his life in prison where he could no longer be a threat to others. His case was appealed to every review court that exists in Kentucky and no errors in the trial were found. The parole board considered his case on two occasions and on the last one were so convinced of his guilt that they directed he never appeal for relief with them and that he serve the remainder of his life in prison.
Twenty-six years later, he walks out of prison with no restraints of any kind. No prohibitions on any actions he may desire. All this because the governor gives him “a full and unconditional pardon.” Why did Matt Bevin do this? Was it, as he said, solely because of a questionable hair found in a waste can at defendant’s home? Does the DNA interest the governor? Where did the governor get his information and did he review the entirety of the evidence or rely on the words of others, and if so, who? Why did the governor do this without making one phone call to police, prosecutors, or appellate judges? Did he conclude that his “God-like” powers of forgiveness requires no explanation or consideration of the victims? Why ignore laws that require notification to victims of crime?
Our former governor tweeted: “I personally spent hundreds of hours reading every application and file of those who received a pardon … I personally wrote every word of justification for each pardon granted and each sentence commuted.” He further tweets, “not a single person was released who had not already been scheduled for a specific release date or who was sentenced with the eligibility to be considered for early release.”
His statements are not true! Partin was to serve out a life sentence and Leif Halvorsen was awaiting execution on death row prior to Bevin’s benevolence. Governor, you relied on false information and disregarded victims. The law says victims have a voice. You owe the people of Kentucky and victims of crime an apology, and, more importantly, an explanation.
Tom Handy is the former Commonwealth’s Attorney in Knox and Laurel counties.
This story was originally published December 14, 2019 at 11:43 AM.