Louisville Satanic Ritual Killing: Duo To Get New Trial

LOUISVILLE, KY — In light of new evidence — including DNA on a strand of hair, Kentucky's highest court ordered a new trial for two men convicted of murdering a woman as part of a satanic ritual.

Jeffrey Dewayne Clark and Garr Keith Hardin have been incarcerated for more than two decades in the slaying of Rhonda Warford. A judge threw out their convictions and ordered a new trial in light of new DNA evidence. On Thursday, the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the order.

Evidence from the 1995 trial included a strand of hair found on Warford's sweatpants. An expert testified that the hair was similar to Hardin's hair. But a DNA test indicated the hair didn't match Hardin, and a key witness in the case was later found to have lied under oath in a separate murder case. Defense attorneys say that undermines his credibility. (For more information on the Warford killing and other Louisville stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The Innocence Project fought for years to have the evidence tested for DNA. The Kentucky Supreme Court granted the request in 2013.

Warford disappeared April 1, 1992, after leaving her home in the south end of Louisville. He body was found three days later across the county line in Meade County’s Dead Horse Hollow. She was stabbed 11 times.

Prosecutors said in 1995 that blood on a cloth in Hardin’s home was animal blood and a cup was a “chalice” used in a satanic ritual to drink the animal blood and gain standing with Lucifer. The DNA evidence showed the blood was not from an animal. It was Hardin’s blood, matching his testimony that he cut himself and used the cloth to wipe his hands.

Meade Circuit Judge Bruce Butler determined there was no evidence Warford’s murder was inspired by satanism.

Hardin confessed before a parole board, but his attorneys and family dismiss that admission as a desperate man hoping to appease the board and get out of prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Mark Handy, then a detective with the Louisville Police Department, testified that Hardin confessed during an interrogation that he’d grown tired of animal sacrifices and wanted to graduate to humans. Handy was found to have lied under oath in a different trial in 1995, just a few weeks before he testified against Hardin and Clark. An internal police investigation found Handy should be criminally prosecuted for misconduct.

Photo credit: Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press