By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor

COVINGTON - A judge could rule next week whether to allow a confession to be used as evidence in a death penalty trial set to begin March 15.

Jeremy Niemer and Anthony Wayne Ferry are charged in the July 2003 killing of 83-year-old Earl Rusche of Lakeside Park. Investigators say the pair beat Rusche to death after he refused to give them more money to buy crack cocaine.

Prosecutors say Ferry, who lived in the victim's basement, confessed to the crime after he was arrested by Ludlow police the same day and taken to the hospital for self-inflicted cuts to his arms.

"He talked to (Kenton County Detective) Wayne Wallace twice - once in the hospital and then after he was released, which was the next day," said Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Christy Muncy.

Ferry's attorney asked Kenton County Circuit Judge Gregory Bartlett to suppress the confession because Ferry had not been read his Miranda rights a second time.

The pair are to be tried together on charges of murder, first-degree robbery and theft, but their attorneys have asked to have the trials separated.

Ferry told police that he and Niemer, who police say also has confessed, had spent the night of the killing smoking crack in Rusche's basement, and the elderly widower gave them $50, which they used to buy more of the drug.

After they had smoked that, they asked Rusche - a longtime friend of Ferry's mother - for more money.

Rusche refused, and the two men beat and kicked him to death in his bedroom, police say.

Investigators say Ferry and Niemer stole the victim's ATM and credit cards, which they used to withdraw $600.

A cleaning woman noticed something was wrong the next day when she saw Rusche's false teeth in a bowl and blood on the carpet.

Ferry's mother found her friend's bludgeoned body stuffed in a crawl space, clutching a broken ice scraper that investigators say had been used in the beating.