The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 7

KY THE COURIER-JOURNAL SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1995 EDITOR: MARK PROVANO PHONE: 582-4657 FAX: 582-4200 NTUC KJE BRIEFLY it Ik Jones may call special session on juvenile crime "Removing the cloak of confidentiality seems to make sense in some cases." Mark Guilfoyle, the governor's executive cabinet secretary Scott Pennington, 19, sat next to public defender Hugh Convery, who was asking questions during Pennington's sentencing yesterday for the murders of a school teacher and janitor. Pennington gets life sentence in slayings of teacher, janitor Pennington also held his 22 classmates at gunpoint for about 15 minutes after the shootings. The judge could not increase the jury's recommended sentence, but he denied a motion from public defender Hugh Convery to set a lesser one. Convery had argued that because the jury on Feb. 28 found Pennington guilty of murder but mentally ill, it would be "unduly harsh" to give him the maximum.

Long disagreed, "Based upon the nature and circumstance of the crime, the court is not of the opinion that the jury's verdict was unduly harsh," he said. Long also sentenced Pennington to the maximum of 20 years for each of 21 counts of kidnapping his classmates after the shootings. And he gave the maximum five years for one count of first-degree unlawful imprisonment for a student who escaped the classroom. The kidnapping sentences will run consecutively to each other, but concurrently with the murder A ASSOCIATED PRESS sentences. Convery said he will appeal the sentence.

Convery had argued that Pennington was insane at the time of the shootings and was not in control of his actions. But Assistant Attorney General Barbara Whaley contended that the honor student carefully plotted the shootings and even manufactured an insanity case through his writings and statements to medical experts. Pennington's mother, Esta, and his sister, Rachel, sat at the back of the courtroom with their heads bowed during the sentencing hearing. Afterward, they rushed to a car without commenting. Before yesterday's sentencing, Long heard testimony from psychologist Gary Prater, who testified that Pennington understood the seriousness of his situation and was able to help his attorneys in his sentencing.

Convery objected to Prater's appointment, noting that Prater had evaluated Pennington for the prosecution and had testified for Whaley during the trial. Catron said. McKinney's husband of about a month, Gary McKinney, has told police he wasn't home at the time. Police have not yet charged anyone, but Catron is "optimistic we'll make an arrest soon." Catron said investigators think that whoever killed McKinney knew the family and that robbery was not a motive. Firefighters were called to the I 1 By ALLEN G.

BREED Associated Press PAINTSVILLE, Ky. Scott Pennington will be in prison for at least 25 years, but the widower of one of his two murder victims said yesterday that was not enough. "He didn't get the maximum," said Dan McDavid, husband of slain East Carter High School teacher Deanna McDavid. "The maximum would have been the death penalty. That's what he should have gotten." Special Judge Samuel Long went along with a Johnson Circuit Court jury's recommendation in giving Pennington, 19, the sentence of life without possibility of parole for 25 years for the Jan.

18, 1993, shootings of McDavid and janitor Marvin Hicks. Pennington walked into his seventh-period English class and shot McDavid, 48, in the head as she stood by the blackboard. He then fired a slug into the abdomen of Hicks, 51, as the janitor entered the room to investigate. 3 found in By JOSEPH GERTH Staff Writer SOMERSET, Ky. A woman and her two children, whose charred bodies were found in their burned-out home Sunday, had been shot to death, Pulaski County Sheriff Sam Catron said yesterday.

The bodies of Shirley Faye Bowles McKinney, 29; her son, Brian Lee Bowles, 11; and her daugh Congress comes to Hickman's aid WASHINGTON The House and Senate approved a defense bill Thursday night that authorizes $3 million worth of work by the Army Corps of Engineers to combat erosion threatening the city of Hickman, Ky. Underground water has eroded the face of the 170-foot cliff, overlooking the Mississippi River, on which the city sits. The corps is planning to rebuild about 60 feet of the bluff and divert the water. President Clinton is expected to sign the $3 billion bill. Lexington adopts curfew The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council has passed a curfew, effective immediately, that requires youths under 18 to be off the streets by 11 p.m.

on weeknights and 1 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Thursday's vote was 9-4. About 100 people, many of them teenagers, showed up at the meeting to oppose the curfew. Teens caught violating the curfew can be told to go home, taken home or be taken to a detention center.

Parents of violators could be fined up to $499. But how long would he stay? Lexington hostess Anita Madden, left, may have America's most famous house guest, Kato Kaelin, right, at her Kentucky Derby party this year. It all started when WKQQ-FM radio host Dave "Kruser" Kru-senklaus told Madden, "All you rich people have someone who sponges off of you and all you ask is that they pick up the dry cleaning once in a while." He asked Madden if she would invite Kaelin, who lived at O.J. Simpson's estate, if the station could get in touch with him. She agreed, and WKQQ did.

Kaelin "loves Kentucky, and if his schedule allows, he'd love to be there" since it's a fund-raiser for the Bluegrass Boys Ranch, his agent said. Quarry permits harder to get An order from the state's top environmental official means it will be a lot tougher to get a quarrying permit. It's been the practice to issue non-coal mining permits without first ensuring that the application will comply with all environmental performance standards. The understanding has been that an operator can be cited for violations as they occur, he said. But on Thursday Phillip Shepherd, secretary of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet, ordered that from now on, a detailed technical review be performed under newly adopted regulations before quarrying permits are issued or renewed.

T2 is what's new at Kingdom Kentucky Kingdom opens this weekend with a new $8 million, suspended, looping roller coaster called T2, which stands for "terror to the second power." Admission is $19.95, or $10.95 for children up to 48 inches tall and for people 60 and older. Group rates are available. The park will be open most Fridays from 6 to 10 p.m., most Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and most Sundays from 11 a.m.

to 7 p.m. up to Memorial Day weekend. Then it will be open daily. BEG YOUR PARDON Because of an artist's error, a map yesterday incorrectly included Greenup County among Kentucky counties with forest fires. A listing in yesterday's Weekend section gave the wrong hours for the Kentucky Opera Guild's annual book fair.

The fair is from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and from noon to 4 p.m. tomorrow at Tafel Motors, 4156 Shelbyville Road. INDEX Deaths B5 Weather B3 'fir rv burned Pulaski home From Staff and Wire Dispatches FRANKFORT, Ky.

Gov. Brere-ton Jones may ask legislators to address juvenile crime including the confidentiality of juvenile-court proceedings at a special session later this year, aides said yesterday. But the administration has not decided whether to call a special session or what topics to address if it does, said Franklin Jelsma, a top aide to Jones. The governor recently indicated he may ask lawmakers to fund some of the projects they passed over during last year's legislative session including those involving community colleges and juvenile-detention centers. Last year the administration asked the legislature for money to build a detention center in Northern Kentucky and to design one in Western Kentucky.

Justice Secretary Paul Isaacs yesterday estimated the cost of the two projects at $3 million to $4 million. The need for them "hasn't gone away," he said. But Jones also is looking at addressing other juvenile-crime issues in a special session, aides said yesterday. The governor would favor opening some juvenile felony hearings to the public, said Mark Guilfoyle, secretary of Jones' executive cabinet. Juvenile proceedings are generally closed.

"Removing the cloak of confidentiality seems to make sense in some cases," Guilfoyle said. "But don't forget the reason why we have confidentiality. People shouldn't have to live with an innocent mistake for the rest of their lives." The confidentiality issue was highlighted recently when The Courier-Journal revealed that 17-year-old Jeremy Gipson, who is accused of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl in Louisville, had admitted sexually abusing a 7-year-old two years ago. The earlier case was "infor-maled," a common practice in which an offender is not technically convicted in juvenile court but is told he must do certain things to get the charges dropped. Gipson was told he had to go to counseling ses- had been McKinney home, which they had rented for only a few weeks, about 2 p.m.

Sunday after a neighbor spotted the flames. He called another neighbor, who rushed to the scene just in time to watch the roof cave in. "It was already on fire so bad, you couldn't even get close to it," said David Burton, who lives about a half-mile away. By the time the Woodstock Fire Praveen is the second of three sons. He's an eighth-grader at Pikeville Middle School.

He won the middle school social studies competition in the Governor's Cup last month. He said he has always been interested in geography and has traveled a fair amount. He has gone to Mexico, for example, and has visited India two or three times. sions, but he attended only a few. Diana Thornsberry, the mother of the 12-year-old who was killed, has said that if the earlier case had been public, her daughter might have avoided danger.

Guilfoyle said Jones also will listen to other recommendations on changing juvenile laws from Attorney General Chris Gorman and a legislative subcommittee that is looking at the topic. Gorman already has suggested several changes, including requiring anyone 14 or older who commits a crime with any deadly weapon not just a gun to be tried as an adult. He has also recommended allowing school officials to inspect confidential juvenile records, and opening the records of juveniles who commit felonies or any crime with a deadly weapon. Sen. Gerald Neal, co-chairman of the legislative subcommittee, said it's important that the legislature deal with the big picture if it revises juvenile laws including how to prevent juvenile crime, and how to improve the overall system.

Looking at the confidentiality of juvenile proceedings may be a good idea, but "it is not going to nearly get to the fundamental issues," said Neal, D-Louisville. "I'd hope and trust that we do not allow emotions to drive us, and (that we) look at the whole system." He said the subcommittee has not begun discussing recommendations. Guilfoyle said one issue the state must deal with is preventing juvenile offenders from committing additional crimes. "The challenge of the juvenile justice system is to make sure they don't do it again," he said. shot first Department arrived, the small frame house had burned to the ground.

McKinney and Amy Bowles were found on the floor in the living room, and Brian Bowles was found in a bedroom. Catron and state Fire Marshal Dennis Decker said the fact that the fire occurred in the afternoon but that no one escaped had made them suspicious. STAFF PHOTO BY SAM UPSHAW JR. His parents, R.V. and Jyothi Mettu, are from India but moved to the United States about 20 years ago.

They now practice medicine in Pikeville. She's a pediatrician; he's a pulmonary specialist. Praveen's next trip will be to the national competition, where he will compete for the first-place prize, a $25,000 scholarship. "It's exciting," he said. I Pikeville 14-year-old navigates way to top of geography bee ter, Amy Michelle Bowles, 3, were found by investigators sifting the ashes of their home in the Pulaski County community of Plato.

Catron said preliminary autopsy results showed that McKinney and Brian Bowles had been shot several times and that Amy Bowles had been shot once. McKinney and her children were killed and then the house was set ablaze to "cover up the murder," Geographic Society's magazine for children and the Chrysler Corp. One hundred students from throughout Kentucky competed at the University of Louisville. Ten students all boys made it to the final round, where they faced elimination if they missed a second question. Some dealt with pure geography, such as the question about which state has major trading centers along both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers (Missouri).

Then there were questions that included an element of current events, such as this one: In December 1994, a U.S. Army helicopter flying north at the 38th Parallel was shot down for violating the air space of which Asian country? The answer is North Korea, but three people were eliminated when they wrote "Iraq." They were the first to be eliminated from the final round, and the crowd applauded their effort as they left the stage. One of the boys had laughed at his answer as he showed the crowd what he wrote. He had sensed it was wrong. But the crowd laughed only when Albert J.

Petersen who moderated, said he was going to spare the crowd the embarrassment of asking how many adults knew the answers ft JXli v. II ft By BEVERLY BARTLETT Staff Writer You could read the contestants' faces like maps. The uncertain looks. The deter mined looks. The disappointed looks.

But the must-see look at the Kentucky Geography Bee yesterday wasn't the face of a contestant at all it was the beaming face of the winner's father. "I was confident he was going to do well," R.V. Mettu said shortly after hugging his 14-year-old son, Praveen. "But you don't know what the next question is going to be." It didn't seem to matter. Praveen, of Pikeville, didn't miss one question in the final round of the state geography bee.

And he didn't have to guess. "I was confident of all the answers," he said matter-of-factly. His answers netted him the state title, $100, an atlas and a trip to the National Geography Bee in Washington next month. Not to mention several big smiles, a handshake and the hug from his father. This is the seventh year for the bee, which is sponsored by National Geographic World the National Praveen Mettu, 14, appeared pleased with himself yesterday after winning the Kentucky Geography Bee at the University of Louisville.

He's an eighth-grader at Pikeville Middle School. to all the questions. "Even the judges have the answers, and so do I for that matter," Petersen said. "And I teach geography at Western Kentucky University. I think these are very difficult questions." Praveen agreed.

When he was asked afterward what the hardest question was, he couldn't answer. "They were all kind of hard.".