Thursday's Internet Edition, September 02, 2010.

Tiea Jones, 22, of Cherry Lane, Gandeeville, and Brian Gallagher, 30, of Hillsboro, Ky., were indicted in May by a Rowan County, Ky., grand jury on charges of murder and 1st-degree criminal abuse.

The charges involve the death of Jones’ son, Nathanial Lee Jones, more than a year before the indictments were returned.

The child died in March 2009 at a hospital in Morehead, Ky. Police said his mother reported finding him unresponsive at the home in Clearfield, Ky., she and Gallagher shared.

A Kentucky State Police detective said an investigation indicated the child died of blunt force trauma to the stomach.

Gallagher was arrested the day the indictments were returned and Jones was arrested the following week. Both are free on $75,000 bond.

Assistant commonwealth attorney Ronny Goldy said Jones and Gallagher would be tried together. Their trial is set to begin Dec. 6 in the court of Rowan County Circuit Judge William Lane.

Both defendants have hired their own defense lawyers and Goldy said he would oppose any request for separate trials.’

“You have the same facts and evidence in both cases,” he said. “It only makes sense to try them at the same time.”

On Friday, a Rowan County grand jury returned another indictment against Gallagher. According to Goldy, Gallagher was indicted on a charge of being a persistent felony offender in the 2nd degree. Goldy said the charge stems from Gallagher’s 1998 conviction for 2nd-degree arson in Fleming County, Ky., where Gallagher served as a firefighter.

The new charge could serve to enhance the sentence if Gallagher is convicted on the other charges. The murder charge both Jones and Gallagher are facing carries a possible penalty of 20 years to life in prison, while the criminal abuse charge has a penalty of 5-to-10 years. That could be doubled to 10-to-20 years if Gallagher is also convicted of being a persistent felony offender.

Goldy said a pretrial hearing is set for Aug. 6.