Kentucky Politician Charged with Insurance Department Employee’s Murder

A one-time Kentucky political star whose reputation was tarnished by an ex-girlfriend’s domestic violence allegations told police of wanting revenge when he was arrested in a cemetery hours after she was shot to death.

Republican Steve Nunn, who had aspirations of using what one lawmaker called his family’s “magic name” to follow his father into the governor’s office, instead landed in a rural jail cell after being charged with murder. He was arrested by police investigating the death of the woman who had months earlier accused him of attacking her – and cost him his job in state government.

Nunn lamented that he lost the job because of a domestic violence case and couldn’t get another when officers found him with self-inflicted wrist wounds near his parents’ graves in a rural cemetery, according to arrest documents. Nunn, however, stopped short of confessing to the woman’s slaying, Lexington Detective Todd Iddings said in the affidavit.

Iddings wrote that Nunn talked of revenge and said of the suicide attempt that “he was sorry for not completing the job.” The son of former Republican Gov. Louie Nunn was treated for the injuries at a Bowling Green hospital before being moved to the jail in Hart County, about 100 miles southwest of Lexington.

Nunn has also been charged with violating a protective order taken out by 29-year-old Amanda Ross, whose body was found outside her Lexington town home.

Asked about the murder charge, Nunn’s attorney, Astrida Lemkins, replied, “The case will be tried in the courts and not in the press. Our sympathies are with the Ross family for their loss. We don’t want to create a circus atmosphere and we’ll keep our comments to a minimum.”

Nunn spent 15 years as a state representative until losing a bid for re-election in 2006. He also ran unsuccessfully for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2003. Nunn returned to state government in 2007 as deputy secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, but was put on administrative leave in February after he was charged with domestic violence. He resigned in March.

Fayette County court records show that Ross had a protective order stemming from the domestic violence charge that was in effect through March 2010. The order also required that Nunn not have any firearms.

Ross claimed in the February complaint that Nunn became violent during an argument at her home and hit her in the face four times. The complaint said Nunn pushed her against a wall, broke a lamp and threw a cup of bourbon at her. Nunn said at the time that Ross blocked him from leaving her apartment, struck him in the face and threw him into the lamp.

Ross was director of financial standards and examination for the Kentucky Department of Insurance. Co-worker Rhonda Sloan described her as “an extremely bright and talented woman with a wonderful sense of humor.”