He had the touch to talk to anyone. A man accused of killing a Lexington man and leaving him in a park was on probation, which should have been revoked when he pleaded guilty to a marijuana charge last month, his criminal record shows. He remained in jail. The records indicate he was on probation for a cocaine conviction last year and should have been jailed after pleading guilty to the marijuana charge March 22. However, court officials said they didn't realize Mr. Chenault was on probation at the time.
State law requires judges to first consider probation as punishment instead of prison.
But once criminals are on probation, in many cases, they're essentially left unwatched, Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson said. As a result of this problem, we now have a tragedy. Somebody is dead. One daughter, Lauren, died from Chris Mercer's abuse. The jury recommended seven years for the manslaughter charge and four years for each of the abuse charges, to run consecutively for a total of 15 years.