Facing 27 Murder Counts, Driver Pleads Not Guilty

A pickup truck driver pleaded not guilty Friday to 27 murder counts--one for each victim of a crash with a church bus--after a grand jury rejected charges that could have led to the death penalty.

Larry Mahoney, 35, was silent as defense attorney William L. Summers entered pleas to the 27 murder charges, 44 counts of wanton endangerment, 13 of assault and one of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Carroll Circuit Judge Charles F. Satterwhite set $270,000 cash bond. The chief prosecutor, Paul Richwalsky, had contended that the gravity of the crime and the possibility that Mahoney would drink and drive warranted $1-million bond.

The judge did not schedule a date for the trial.

Mahoney, who is being held in Oldham County Jail, faces 20 years to life in prison on each murder count if convicted. Conviction of capital murder, the charge the grand jury rejected, could have sent him to the electric chair.

“After investigating into the law and evidence, we concluded it would not be appropriate to make this a death penalty case,” state Atty. Gen. Fred Cowan said. He indicated that authorities did not feel the crime was premeditated.

“This has taken a burden off him,” Summers said of his client. “The burden of what happened that night will never be off him.

“He couldn’t sleep the night before wondering if he would live or be put to death,” Summers added. “He’s had that answered.”

Dr. George Nichols, the state’s medical examiner, announced earlier Friday that the 24 children and three adults died of smoke inhalation after the pickup truck, which was going the wrong way, collided with the bus May 14 on Interstate 71 near Carrollton. The bus, owned by Radcliff First Assembly of God, was returning from an outing at an Ohio amusement park.

Nichols said at a news conference in Louisville that alcohol was found in the blood of four children, but he attributed this to a natural process and not drinking.

“I believe the alcohol showed up because of the post-mortem fermentation of blood sugar,” he said.