W.Va. boy claims suspect in Ky. girl's murder targeted him
SCOTTSVILLE, Ky. -- A south-central Kentucky man charged in the killing of a 7-year-old girl was identified by a West Virginia boy as someone who allegedly tried to lure him into a vehicle a month before the girl's death, according to a Kentucky State Police affidavit.
The Bowling Green Daily News reports Detective Wesley Medley filed the affidavit for a search warrant last month in the case of Timothy Madden of Scottsville.
Madden is charged in the death of Gabriella Doolin, who disappeared Nov. 14 while attending a game to cheer on her brother. She was found dead less than half an hour later in a creek. Madden has pleaded not guilty on charges of murder, kidnapping, first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy.
Prosecutors have a March 31 deadline to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
The affidavit said a boy watching a television account of Madden's arrest told his father that the suspect was the same man who allegedly asked him and another boy to get into his vehicle on Oct. 9 at a gas station in Mason, West Virginia. A man asked the boys to "come take a ride in my RV," but the boys ran back to a high school, and a relative of one of the boys reported the incident.
When the boy saw a photo of Madden during a November television newscast, he said, "That's the guy from the parking lot, at the Mason Wal-Mart," according to the affidavit, which said Medley talked to the boy's father and obtained an incident report from the Mason Police Department.
Search warrants obtained by Medley included one for Madden's cellphone and for other information, including cell tower coordinators from Oct. 8 to 11.
Madden's attorney Travis Lock, in a statement to WBKO, accused the Kentucky State Police of attempting to "poison the prospective jury pool panel" and blasted them for investigating an allegation "that is highly unlikely to have any relevance or bearing on this case."
"Timothy Madden has the right to a fair trial, which is undoubtedly being jeopardized by KSP's decisions to conjure as much negative information as possible and schematically put it in the court file," Lock said. "Ultimately, this case should be tried in the courtroom rather than the news."