Napier v. Commonwealth

PALMORE, Judge.

James Douglas Napier appeals from a judgment sentencing him to 15 years in prison pursuant to a jury verdict finding him guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the first degree. KRS 435.022(1). He was tried on an indictment for willful murder. KRS 435.010.

Marvin Ray Cox was shot and killed late one Saturday night or early Sunday morning on the street in front of a tavern or cabaret in Newport, Kentucky, from which he had been ejected a few minutes earlier following a fight between him and the appellant, Napier. According to witnesses for the Commonwealth, when Cox got outside he…