Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Joshua W. Preacher and Nereida Allen

Louisville, Kentucky, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with murder, first-degree assault, and first-degree criminal abuse of a child.



On Monday, August 25, 2008, a case worker for Child Protective Services ordered Allen's twin sisters, Janet and Jeannette Allen, to clean and repair deplorable conditions at the home they shared in east Louisville and in the meantime to provide alternate housing for their two sons, Janet's twenty-eight month-old son, Wyatt, and Jeanette's twenty-seven month-old son, Christopher. According to the social worker, at the time she visited the home and talked to the mothers both boys were active and alert, were without significant bruises or other obvious signs of injury, and appeared to be normal two-year-olds. At the sisters' request, the social worker



contacted Allen, with whom Wyatt had spent most of the preceding six to eight weeks, and Allen agreed to take in the two children. Accordingly, later that afternoon Allen and her live-in boyfriend, Peacher, picked up the boys and took them to their home on Holly Park Drive in south Louisville. Not quite forty-eight hours later, at about 2:00 pm on Wednesday, August 27, EMS workers responded to a 911 call from Allen and found Christopher in Allen's bedroom unconscious and in full cardiac arrest. They took the child to nearby Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Hospital, where doctors were able to reestablish a heartbeat. The child was then, at about 3:00 pm, transported to Kosair Children's Hospital, where scans and other tests revealed that Christopher had suffered severe head injuries rendering him brain dead. He also had numerous severe injuries to his abdominal organs. At about 2:00 pm the next day, August 28, Christopher was removed from life support and pronounced dead.



Peacher and Allen were jointly tried in February 2011. Their pretrial motions for separate trials were denied as were their motions to sever the charges pertaining to Christopher from the one charge involving Wyatt. Peacher also moved to suppress his police statements but the trial court denied the motion, ultimately allowing the introduction of redacted statements from both defendants.

Peacher was sentenced to serve the statutory maximum of seventy years' imprisonment. Allen was sentenced to serve forty-seven years.



Affirmed



Motion for post-conviction relief denied.



Affirmed