Candidate for sheriff linked to slaying of incumbent

SOMERSET, Ky. -- A candidate for sheriff was charged Monday in connection with the sniper-style assassination of the incumbent -- his chief rival in next month's primary and his former boss.

The candidate, Jeff Morris, 34, and a campaign worker were charged with complicity to murder. A third man, also tied to the Morris campaign, has been charged with actually shooting Sheriff Sam Catron at a weekend fish fry and political rally in front of more than 300 people.

The three suspects were being held without bond. All could face the death penalty, prosecutor Eddy Montgomery said.

"Complicity to commit murder carries the same penalty as the murder itself," he said.

State Police Capt. Paul Hays said he doesn't expect any more arrests, but refused to discuss an alleged motive. He said only that the campaign tied the three men together.

Former deputy charged

Morris was Catron's deputy until last summer. Details about why he left were not disclosed Monday by authorities.

Catron, 48, was shot in the head Saturday shortly after he finished a campaign speech in Shopville, a tiny town 70 miles south of Lexington. He was running for a fifth term and faced Morris and others in the May 28 open primary. He and Morris were both Republicans.

The man charged with capital murder, Danny Shelley, 30, was caught after the shooting after wrecking a motorcycle registered to Morris. He pleaded innocent earlier Monday.

Prosecutors say Shelley was one of two witnesses who signed candidate filing papers for Morris. The other man charged with complicity, Kenneth White, 54, had helped Morris' campaign.

"Mr. White was a door-knocker, sign putter-upper," said Todd Dalton, a State Police detective.

Jim McWhorter, the chief deputy sworn in as sheriff, said Morris was a deputy under Catron from 1996 to July 2001.

McWhorter wouldn't comment on Morris' reason for leaving the sheriff's office, but he said he knew of no ill will between Catron and Morris.

Catron had been sheriff of the sparsely populated south-central Kentucky county since 1985. Catron was wearing a bulletproof vest Saturday. He often did because of what happened to his father in 1957: Then-Somerset Police Chief Harold Catron was shot in front of his home by three men in a sedan.