COVINGTON — Sentencing for admitted killer Jeffrey Gabbard will likely be postponed.

        Not because Mr. Gabbard sent two letters to the court, first asking that he be executed and then retacting the request, but because the case is caught between a changeover in administration of the Commonwealth Attorney's office.

Gabbard

        The problem is that one of Mr. Gabbard's original attorneys has accepted a job with the incoming Commonwealth Attorney, Bill Crockett.

        Mike Folk is leaving the public defender's office to become a prosecutor for the state. That creates a conflict of interest, which could result in the state Attorney General appointing a special prosecutor to take over the case, Mr. Crockett said.

        However, the sentencing hearing, to determine whether Mr. Gabbard will get the death penalty, is still scheduled for Jan. 9.

        The possibility of another delay led Mr. Gabbard to write two letters from his jail-house cell to Kenton County Circuit Judge Steven Jaeger, who will be handling the case.

        In the first letter, Mr. Gabbard warned that if he is not executed, he'll harass his victim's family and kill as many fellow prisoners as needed to put him on Death Row. In a second letter, he asked Judge Jaeger to ignore the letter he had sent two days earlier.

        Mr. Gabbard already has pleaded guilty to murder and robbery for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jennifer Harber in October of 1998. She was a student at Highlands High School in Fort Thomas.

Potential conflict presents problems
Killer's sentence delayed again