State Senator Whitney Westerfield of Christian County advocated for a commutation on behalf of convicted sex offender Dayton Jones to former Governor Matt Bevin in the final days of Bevin’s term.
Bevin granted Jones a complete commutation of his sentence to time served in the final hours of his first and only term.
Jones was one of four suspects who pled guilty for their roles in the November, 2014 sexual assault of an unconscious 15-year old male at a party on Lafayette Road. The assault was recorded on a smartphone and distributed on Snap Chat.
The Courier Journal cited text messages received through open records requests in a Tuesday story where Westerfield asked Bevin’s lawyers to commute Jones’ sentence, telling them the crime involved “very poor judgement by a relative kid.”
He also said in a text that Jones was “over-prosecuted” at the direction of then Attorney General Andy Beshear. Westerfield says he was told by multiple sources that then AG Beshear wanted Jones prosecuted without mercy by his office because the case was in Christian County—the home of Westerfield who was at the time considering another run against him for the AG seat.
Westerfield says he did believe the 10-year sentence Jones received as part of a plea deal in 2016 was larger than sentences he’s seen in similar cases, but acknowledged he wasn’t privy to all of the facts in the case.
Governor Beshear issued a statement to the Courier Journal saying, “Senator Westerfield’s comments are wrong and he should apologize for showing no remorse for the victim of a horrendous crime. Inserting politics into this case, a case where a child, family and community deserved justice, is unconscionable.”
Ultimately, Westerfield contends he was just passing along a constituent request to the executive branch—something he does on a regular basis.
He believes former Governor Bevin was wrong to commute the sentence to time served and his biggest regret was not specifying to the executive branch that the victim in the case should be consulted.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Boling has been surrounded by controversy and has heard calls to resign his seat after it was discovered he wrote a letter on his office letterhead asking Bevin to give relief to Jones.
Jones has since been indicted in Federal court on one count of producing child sex abuse material. He faces a mandatory minimum 15-year sentence in federal prison, if convicted on the federal charge.