3 plead guilty to roles in 2015 quarry homicide 

Published 9:51 am Friday, January 20, 2017

The remaining three co-defendants in a homicide at a Clark County rock quarry pleaded guilty in Clark Circuit Court Thursday.

Don Attaway, Kristi Mattingly and Chris Coleman appeared before Judge Jean Chenault Logue and were asked to describe their roles in the May 2015 incident that resulted in the death of Roy Combs and injured Billy Combs.

All were charged with complicity to commit murder, a class A felony, and attempted murder, a Class B felony.

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The fourth defendant in the case, Kirk Garrett, pleaded guilty in December and was sentenced to 20 years for murder and five years for second-degree assault, which was amended from second-degree attempted murder. The sentences will run concurrently, and he must serve at least 85 percent of the 20 years before being eligible to meet the parole board.

Garrett admitted in court he shot Roy Combs in the face with a handgun during the incident.

Garret said in December the situation started when he was told Coleman hit his daughter and the two Combses, who are cousins, assaulted Coleman in return. He also said another person said the Combses took money from Garrett.

From there, the group made a plan to bring the Combses to the quarry to scare them as a form of payback.

In court Thursday, Attaway, Mattingly and Coleman admitted to meeting in a hotel room with Garrett to form the plan.

Coleman said he helped Garrett find the two victims by telling him where they lived.

Garrett picked the Combses up in Madison County and the other defendants met him at the quarry in a car driven by Mattingly.

Coleman said he watched as Garrett took Roy Combs out of his truck while wielding a gun. Coleman also admitted to holding a gun to the back of Billy Combs’ head as Attaway beat him.

Attaway said he struck Billy Combs three times in the head with his hand and kicked him in the behind.

Garrett said they started walking down the road “into the weeds” when he shot Roy Combs. He said Mattingly had a shotgun, and he heard other shots fired as Billy Combs ran away. Billy Combs eventually escaped with a shotgun wound and called for help.

Mattingly said she did have a gun during the incident, but she never fired.

“I didn’t do anything to stop the murder,” she said in court Thursday. “But I didn’t shoot anybody and I passed a lie detector.”

Evidence indicated the bullet that struck Billy Combs came from the gun Mattingly was carrying.

Attaway said he was not armed during the incident and tried to tell Garrett to stop, so he would not plead guilty to attempted murder. He said he also walked away from the others and heard the gun shots as he was standing in the middle of the road with his back to them.

Combs pleaded guilty to attempted murder with a recommended sentence of 12 years and an amended charge of facility to commit murder with a recommended five-year sentence. The sentences would run consecutively for a total of 17 years. He is scheduled for sentencing Feb. 9.

Mattingly pleaded guilty to attempted murder with a recommended sentence of 13 years and an amended charge of facility to commit murder with a recommended five-year sentence to run consecutively for a total of 18 years. She is scheduled for sentencing March 16.

Attaway pleaded guilty to amended charges of facility to commit murder with a recommended five-year sentence and complicity to attempted murder with a recommended 10-year sentence to run consecutively for a total of 15 years. He is scheduled for sentencing March 2.

Each will have to serve 20 percent of their respective sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

About Whitney Leggett

Whitney Leggett is managing editor of The Winchester Sun and Winchester Living magazine. To contact her, email whitney.leggett@winchestersun.com or call 859-759-0049.

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