Tuesday, May 04, 1999
Murder-for-hire scheme alleged
Brothers targeted 4, charges say
BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — Brothers Randall and Terry Cope forged an alliance in December to kill their former lovers and others, and continued their conspiracy until one of them was arrested about three months later, according to an indictment returned against them Monday.
The Copes were indicted in U.S. District Court on charges that stem from their alleged plans to hire someone to kill Sarah Jackson, Randall Cope's ex-girlfriend; David Bunning, an assistant U.S. attorney and son of U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning; and Elizabeth and Ronald Nimmo, Terry Cope's ex-wife and her husband.
Murder for hire, conspiracy and retaliation against a witness were just some of the charges returned against them.
According to the indictment:
The Copes began their plotting in December, when Randall Cope already was facing federal charges because of his alleged behavior toward Ms. Jackson, a nationally recognized Ryle High School teacher.
They decided they would kill or try to kill Ms. Jackson to keep her from testifying against Randall Cope, who ultimately pleaded guilty to 13 counts of making harassing telephone calls and using the Internet without disclosing his identity.
They also agreed that they would threaten to kill Mr. Bunning, who had been prosecuting the case.
The indictment lists some key dates including Jan. 22, when Terry Cope had left his home in Hendersonville, Tenn., and shot at Ms. Jackson with a .38-caliber handgun as she was leaving her Boone County residence. His brother already was in jail under a court order stemming from the federal charges he faced.
The indictment also states that on March 5, Randall Cope asked a cellmate whether he knew somebody who would kill Ms. Jackson.
Five days later, he was told a contract killer named Bill would take care of the job. Bill, who posed as a drywall contractor, actually was an informant working with the Secret Service on the case.
Randall Cope soon mailed his brother a letter that said Bill could handle “all our jobs.”
He mailed another letter March 31, which said he wanted “Sarah to go away and permanently,” that Terry Cope was to call Bill to do the “renovation job,” and that “next week is the time” to kill Sarah.
He continued to talk to his cellmate and actually told him that David Bunning was the reason he was in jail and that “the prosecutor would definitely get it.”
According to the indictment, on April 6, Terry Cope came up to see his brother, visited the U.S. attorney's office, made an unsuccessful attempt to speak with Mr. Bunning and eventually called Bill.
They agreed to meet at a Kmart parking lot in Boone County. Terry said he wanted Ms. Jackson killed and that if successful, he wanted another job done in the Northern Kentucky area. He also wanted to know whether the informant would be interested in doing work “down South,” where his ex-wife and her husband live.
He then gave Bill identifying information on Ms. Jackson and agreed to pay him $5,000. Terry Cope was arrested after he gave $2,500 to the informant.
The indictment also detailed a March 26 letter that Randall Cope mailed to his sister, Stephanie, in Benton. It contained an envelope addressed to “Daddy (For Your Eyes Only)” and asked his father, Wayne, to do the following:
Contact a friend at a flea market about “The Hungarian” in Nashville to kill Terry Cope's ex-wife and her husband for $7,500. He told his father to contact Terry if he didn't want to help — “which is what we don't want,” he told his father.
Ms. Jackson has filed a civil lawsuit against the Copes in Boone County. For those proceedings, Mr. Cope wrote a letter, saying that he's been victimized.
“This is the case of a love affair gone sour,” he wrote. Ms. Jackson “has initiated numerous falsehoods to try to get revenge.”
“That's ridiculous,” said Philip Taliaferro, who is representing Ms. Jackson in the civil lawsuit proceedings. “This has been a nightmare for Sarah and her family.”
Between December and April 6, Terry Cope was under a domestic-violence order not to have contact with his ex-wife. He was facing an attempted-murder charge in Tennessee because of an August incident, when he allegedly shot his ex-wife's husband.
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