Louisville Man Sentenced to 35 Years After Guilty Plea in 2020 Killings of Father and 3-Year-Old Daughter
Louisville, Kentucky: The Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office announced on October 22 that Kevon Lawless, 29, pleaded guilty on Monday (October 19) in the 2020 shooting deaths of a father and his young daughter and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to two counts of murder, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. (GSM, based on reporting by the Louisville Courier Journal and WDRB)
The killings took place shortly after 1 p.m. on August 14, 2020, when Brandon Waddles, 21, and his 3-year-old daughter, Trinity Randolph, were shot at their home in the 3700 block of Kahlert Avenue in Louisville's Jacobs neighborhood. Prosecutors said the shooting occurred during an attempted burglary; Lawless had previously been convicted of attempted murder in a separate case.
The case has wound through the courts for six years. In 2022 a jury convicted Lawless of two counts of murder and one count of burglary, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 2025 the Kentucky Supreme Court overturned the conviction: during the trial a witness committed perjury and was detained, a juror learned of it through news reports and raised it during deliberations, and Judge McKay Chauvin denied a defense motion for a mistrial, instead recalling an alternate juror; the high court ruled a mistrial should have been declared. The case was remanded to Jefferson Circuit Court for a possible retrial, and Lawless was released from state custody in November 2025 and booked into Louisville's jail on a $1 million bond.
"At last, after six years since their deaths, we have justice for Brandon Waddles and Trinity Randolph," Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney Gerina D. Whethers said in the release. She added that she hopes the outcome brings some measure of peace to the victims' family and loved ones.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Louisville 的杰斐逊县法院大楼（资料图）。公共领域图片，经维基共享资源。Photo: Jefferson County Courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky (file photo). Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
