Truck Driver Who Hit Bus Is Charged With Murder

CARROLLTON, Ky. â€”  A pickup truck driver pleaded innocent Friday to 27 murder counts--one for each victim of a crash with a church bus--hours after a grand jury rejected charges that could have led to the death penalty.

Larry Mahoney, 35, was silent and looked at the floor as defense attorney William L. Summers entered pleas to the 27 murder charges, 44 counts of wanton endangerment, 13 of assault and one of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Carroll Circuit Judge Charles F. Satterwhite set $270,000 bond. The case’s chief prosecutor, Paul Richwalsky, contended the gravity of the crime and the possiblity Mahoney would drink and drive warranted $1 million bond.

Summers said he believed bond would be made within days.

“It’s a high bond, but I believe there’s enough support in the community and his family to raise it,� he said. Asked if Mahoney might not be safe out on bail, he said: “He’s a grown man. He’s got a right to decide to put his foot over the threshhold in the jail cell.�

Mahoney, who is being held in Oldham County Jail, faces 20 years to life in prison on each murder count if convicted. Conviction of capital murder, the charge the grand jury rejected, could have sent him to the electric chair.

“After investigating into the law and evidence, we concluded it would not be appropriate to make this a death-penalty case,� Kentucky Attorney General Fred Cowan said after the grand jury indicted Mahoney. Cowan indicated that authorities did not feel the crime was premeditated.

Earlier Friday, Dr. George Nichols, the state’s medical examiner, announced that the 24 children and three adults died of smoke inhalation after the bus and a truck going the wrong way collided May 14 on Interstate 71 near Carrollton. The bus, owned by Radcliff First Assembly of God, was returning from an outing at an Ohio amusement park.