Death penalty remains

An accused triple murderer could face death if he is convicted.
Trigg Circuit Judge C.A. Woodall III denied a defense motion during a pretrial conference Friday for Kevin Wayne Dunlap to remove the death penalty as an option.
Dunlap, 37, goes on trial Feb. 9 in the Oct. 15, 2008 stabbing and slashing deaths of Trigg County siblings Kayla Williams, 17, Kortney McBurney Frensley, 14, and Ethan Frensley, 5, and the attempted murder of their mother, Kristy Frensley.
Dunlap also is accused of setting fire to their Roaring Springs home with them inside. But Kristy Frensley played dead and escaped the burning home where investigators found her in the swimming pool with a knife still in her neck.
Defense attorney James Gibson also asked the court to prevent Kristy Frensley from identifying Dunlap as the killer in court because she twice failed to identify him from a photos while she was still hospitalizes.
Out of an abundance of caution Woodall agreed to conduct a hearing on the issue during the trial outside the jury’s presence.
“I’m not concerned about her not identifying him from photos,” said Commonwealth Attorney G.L. Ovey. “It’s not the same seeing photos, and his changing appearance. It’s different seeing someone a photo and in your home. I’m confident of the outcome of the hearing.”