FRANKFORT, KY (June 13, 2025) - Attorney General Russell Coleman announced today Kentucky’s Court of Appeals has reversed a Fayette Circuit Court decision. The Lexington-based trial court had overturned a jury’s verdict convicting a man of the brutal murder of his son on Father’s Day 2018.
Last June, a circuit judge ordered a new trial in the case against James Hendron. Months earlier, a jury convicted Hendron for shooting and killing his 23-year-old son, Austin Hendron, and sentenced him to life in prison. The circuit judge’s new-trial order wiped away this conviction and raised the possibility that Hendron could be released into the public. The Office of the Attorney General promptly appealed and restored the jury’s conviction.
“Commonwealth’s Attorney Kimberly Baird and her team of prosecutors took this violent killer off the streets and protected Lexington families,” said Attorney General Coleman. “As another anniversary without their loved one nears, we are grateful Austin’s family will find comfort knowing the justice lawfully delivered will stand.”
“On behalf of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and the family of Austin Hendron, we are so grateful to General Coleman and his staff for appealing the order of Judge Goodman. We believed that we followed the law during the trial and the Court of Appeals agreed,” said Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Kimberly Baird. “We look forward to having a court date very soon where James Hendron can officially be sentenced, and Austin’s family can feel justice has finally been served.”
The Opinion can be read here.
Principal Deputy Solicitor General Jack Heyburn and Solicitor General Matt Kuhn litigated the appeal on behalf of the Commonwealth.