Georgetown, Kentucky

From the Lexington Herald-Leader of April 13, 2005

Man killed in Georgetown

Two are shot after going to man's door

Their faces hidden by bandannas, several men appeared on the front porch of a home on Elkhorn Meadows Drive late Monday, apparently with a plan to rip off the suspected drug dealer inside, police said.

Instead, one of the men was killed and another was hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Authorities later found more than three pounds of marijuana inside the house, according to an arrest citation.

The shooting took place about 11:30 p.m. Monday at 186 Elkhorn Meadows Drive in the subdivision of the same name near the Georgetown bypass.

The man inside, Sammy C. Whitaker Jr., heard a knock, saw the men outside and grabbed a 9mm handgun before allowing the men inside, said Georgetown Police Capt. Scott Starns.

One of the men, Edwin Eugene Smith, 27, of Lexington, held a .22-caliber handgun. Moments later, Whitaker, 23, fired several times, mortally wounding Smith in the chest and striking another man, Richard T. Spencer, 28, in the abdomen and hand, Starns said. Police said Whitaker's shots appeared to be in self-defense.

From the Georgetown News-Graphic of April 19, 2006

Wounded suspect sues homeowner

A Lexington man police claim was shot while trying to rob a Georgetown man of drugs is suing the homeowner, citing issues of physical, mental and emotional anguish.

In a lawsuit filed April 10 in Scott Circuit Court, Richard T. Spencer, 29, is seeking an unspecified amount of money for what he alleges is suffering he has experienced as a result of being shot by Sammy J. Whitaker Jr. on April 11, 2005.

Spencer and Travis W. Hall, 25, also of Lexington, were both arrested and charged with first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary for trying to break into Whitaker's Georgetown home.

In the lawsuit, Spencer alleges that the incident was not a robbery gone bad as police have suggested, and instead claims he had been invited to Whitaker's home.

Georgetown police said that Spencer and Hall, along with Edwin Eugene Smith, 27, went to 186 Elkhorn Meadows Drive during the night, intending to rob Whitaker of marijuana and money they knew he kept inside his house.

The men, carrying guns with their faces covered with bandannas, then approached the house and met Whitaker at his front door, police said. Whitaker opened fire, striking Spencer in the hand and abdomen and hitting Smith multiple times in his upper torso, police said.

Smith, of Lexington, died a short time later at Georgetown Community Hospital, where he had been taken by Georgetown-Scott County EMS. Police said EMS was alerted to the scene after Whitaker, as well as several neighbors who heard the gunshots, made 911 calls.

With Hall driving, Spencer fled the scene and was dropped off near Blockbuster Video on South Broadway before a pizza delivery man drove him to the Georgetown hospital, police said.

In addition to Hall and Spencer's charges, Whitaker, 24, was arrested and charged with drug trafficking in connection with the more than three pounds of marijuana police confiscated from his home.

Due to the amount of drugs and the guns involved, the entire case was taken over by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Doug Robinson, an ATF agent involved with the case, said the entire matter is still pending in the federal court system in Lexington.

Whitaker was not charged with shooting Spencer or Smith, as police said he had been acting in self-defense at the time of the incident.

Spencer's lawsuit, however, alleges that Whitaker had shot him “intentionally, wantonly, recklessly and/or negligently,” constituting what he claims was “outrageous conduct and assault and battery.”

As a result of the shooting, Spencer has “suffered and continues to suffer physical, mental and emotional pain and anguish, bodily injury, wage loss and impairment of his ability to earn a living,” the lawsuit states.

Spencer is seeking an unspecified amount of punitive and compensatory damages from Whitaker in the lawsuit and is requesting a jury trial.