Mayfield v. Commonwealth

MILLIKEN, Judge.

Ray Truman Mayfield was convicted of the killing of Shirley Ray Smith and sentenced to serve twenty-one years in the penitentiary. He had pled self-defense and was the only witness who knew what happened, no one else having been present. We reverse.

Mayfield had been an automobile salesman at various places in Southeastern Kentucky, but for about a month had been employed in that capacity in Norwood, Ohio. On Saturday midafternoon, May 30, 1970, Mayfield stopped in a Norwood bar where he met Smith whom he had not known before. During their conversation, Smith discovered that…