Teenager killed in Lexington shooting was set up by his friends, detective testifies
A 17-year-old shot and killed in Lexington earlier this year appeared to be set up by his friends, according to a Lexington police detective.
Kenlon Johnson was killed in March at a home on Rockaway Place in the Masterson Station neighborhood. Jon’Tay Mattingly, 19, was charged last week with murder in his death.
On Wednesday, as Mattingly appeared in Fayette District Court for a preliminary hearing, Lexington police Det. Hunter Wilks said Mattingly was one of four people involved in the set-up that ended in Johnson’s death.
Surveillance footage from the residential neighborhood shows five people, including Johnson and Mattingly, arriving at the scene in a stolen vehicle. Wilks said only four people left, as Johnson was shot and left behind.
Surveillance footage does not show the actual shooting. Wilks didn’t definitively say who pulled the trigger when questioned by Mattingly’s lawyer, Brooklyn Alcorn, about whether detectives knew who the shooter was.
“We’ve identified four individuals that we know to be involved,” Wilks said. “We know Mr. Mattingly came to the scene with those individuals and left with those individuals.
“I believe the idea of coming to the scene in a stolen vehicle with Mr. Johnson and then fleeing the scene together back in that stolen vehicle without Mr. Johnson shows at least some sort of a plan in order to execute this,” Wilks said.
All five people in the surveillance video were friends, Wilks said. The other three people accused of involvement have not been charged.
Anonymous tips identified the names of suspects and detailed how and why the shooting occurred, Wilks said. About 30 search warrants have been filed and many interviews have been conducted during the investigation.
A warrant for Mattingly’s DNA was executed in June. Wilks said a vape with Mattingly’s DNA on it was found at the scene of the shooting. Another DNA profile was found on the vape, too, but it didn’t conclusively match another person.
Several guns have also been recovered throughout the investigation. Wilks said no gun was found at the scene but instead guns were found at residences during search warrant executions.
A gun was found at Mattingly’s house, but it’s unknown if the gun matched the shell casings at the scene, according to Wilks.
Mattingly was interviewed twice — once in June during the DNA warrant execution and again after his arrest. Wilks said he didn’t make any direct admissions of guilt during the interviews.
None of the other people interviewed made any direct admissions during their interviews, Wilks said.
Johnson was shot several times — Wilks estimated that at least five shots were fired, based on surveillance footage.
Johnson was unarmed, and his cell phone hasn’t been recovered, Wilks said. Johnson had no known connection to the home where the shooting occurred.
After asking Wilks questions for about 15 minutes on Wednesday, Alcorn asked Fayette District Judge Bruce Bell to not find probable cause in the case, calling it the weakest murder case she’s ever seen.
“They can’t put a gun in his hands, they don’t know who the shooter is, (and) no one has implicated him as being the shooter, just that he was there,” Alcorn said. “Being there does not implicate somebody automatically for murder and I just don’t think that there’s probable cause that my client murdered Kenlon Johnson as he is currently charged with.”
Bell ultimately did find probable cause in Mattingly’s case and sent it to the grand jury. His bond was lowered from $1 million to $500,000.
