Irvin Edge

In my last blog I discussed the issue that when outgoing governor, Matt Bevin left office in Kentucky in late 2019 he commuted a lot of sentences and issued pardons. There was huge controversies surrounding them and there was indications that the FBI was looking into several of them. It was said that a majority of them were low level drug crimes but there were a few that stuck out.... this is one of them.

On the night of March 12, 1991 sixty year old Charles Westerfield opened the door of his Owensboro Kentucky home and saw a man dressed in a surgical suit. The man opened fire on Westerfield as he daughter (I was not able to determine how old she was) stood nearby. He would die from his injuries.

Charles Westerfield worked at Southwire Rod and Cable Company in nearby Hawesville Kentucky. He also had only what I could find as described as a “side business.” His partner in this business was Irvin Edge who also worked at Southwire. Authorities would later say that Edge was skimming money from the business they ran together and that Westerfield had confronted him about this. It was alleged that Westerfield threatened to call authorities if Edge did not return the money.

It appears that their investigation took them to Southwire where they met Barry McManaway. It is unclear the circumstances surrounding their interview or interviews with him and at just what point they got what they believed, and of course the defense would argue differently later, the truth of what happened in the murder of Westerfield. McManaway would claim that in December of 1990 Irvin Edge asked him if he could find someone to kill Westerfield for a price. McManaway says that he found Randall Murphy and that Edge gave him a gun and $500 to give to Murphy.

McManaway was soon arrested but apparently before that happened investigators had him contact Edge and I can only assume the conversation was recorded. Prosecutors, and more importantly the courts, would say that during this conversation that Edge had “betrayed a consciousness of wrongdoing.” Yes, this is a legal term that even I had to look up. Basically it means that in some way, at least to the investigators and others, Edge had indicated that he was guilty of the crime. Now, just how far that indication went and how much he said in the conversation I cannot say. While I do not have an exact arrest date for either Edge or Murphy I can only assume it came soon after McManaway's.

Irvin Edge would go to trial in May of 1993. Normally I would find a lot of details of the trial, if not in news articles then in the several appeals that have been filed over the years. A majority of the closely available news articles all surround the issue of Matt Bevin's pardons and only mention Edge was one of them with few details. As far as his appeals, I was able to look over a few of them. The problem is that while there were a few that had details of how the crime occurred and information given to authorities by McManaway, but many of them simply surrounded arguing the denial of the last appeal so they were generally “short and sweet.”

What I can say is that there was apparently ample evidence to show that Edge had been embezzling funds from the “side business” and that it was on the verge of bankruptcy. There was a notation that “long before the murder” the business had obtained a life insurance policy on Westerfield. I can only assume that there was also one on Edge but to be fair I do not know that is for certain. However, I found nothing in my research that prosecutors really considered the insurance as being a motive, or at the very least the main motive. By all indication the belief was that Westerfield was murdered because he was threatening to expose Edge for stealing the money from the company. There was also indication that the weapon used in the murder could adequately be traced back to Edge. I say this because the defense argued that Edge was innocent and that Barry McManaway had lied to investigators and that it was McManaway who had an issue with Westerfield and had hired Murphy on his own. Within that argument there was mention that Edge's home had burnt down at some point before the murder and that McManaway could have obtained the weapon from the burned home. I honestly do not see the defense admitting that the weapon used was one owned by Edge without there being some proof of this.

The defense continued to argue that McManaway was a liar and attacked his reputation for honesty. They presented a witness named Joe Blake. Blake testified that in the fall of 1991 he was a trustee in the Owensboro jail where McManaway was also an inmate. He would testify that McManaway had told him that Edge was innocent of the murder and that he had set him up to take the fall and to protect himself. The prosecution was able to let the jury know that Blake knew Irvin Edge's sister and that he did not come forward to authorities until after he talked to her and learned of the charges Edge was facing. The jury apparently did not believe Blake's story and on May 17, 1993 Irvin Edge was convicted. On June 14, 1993 he was sentenced to life in prison.

Over the years defense attorney's have filed several appeals for Irvin Edge. In 2001 they filed for a new trial saying there was “newly discovered evidence.” The lower courts did not see this “new evidence” as substantial, did not call a hearing and denied the appeal. But, the issue stayed in the courts for a while as the defense repeatedly argued that it should be considered. It does appear that in 2002 there had been an hearing so the courts could officially hear the evidence but the appeal was still denied. And yet, the defense continued to argue for it. So, just what was this “new evidence”? Two men, John Roach and Walter Buckner claimed that they too had been in the Owensboro County jail back in the fall of 1991 and that McManaway had told them essentially what Joe Blake had claimed at the 1993 trial. The courts would later say that not only was this not enough to warrant a new trial, they were also highly suspicious of their story because they were “unusually” similar in their speaking as well as their alleged “recollections.” A later appeal would say that the courts felt that the story the two men told appeared so similar that they seemed to be “rehearsed.”

The 2003 appeal on this issue also stated that “the new evidence must be compelling enough to make the original trial appear to have been no trial at all.” They felt that even if Roach and Buckner would have testified at the original trial it would have made no difference to the jury. I did a search for the two men to see if they were still in the Kentucky legal system. I am unsure that I found John Roach but it does appear that I found Walter Buckner and he has a substantial criminal history. It also appears that he has served a small portion of long sentences before being released. His latest case garnered him fifty years for a drug offense but he was paroled after less than ten years. This often indicates that a deal was made with him after his sentence had been imposed and in many cases for that to happen it involves testifying against someone else. To be fair I cannot say this happened, but then again I cannot say it did not.

It appears that in 2004 Irvin Edge had a parole hearing and it was decided that he would “serve out” his life sentence. I have come to believe that this meant that he would not receive another parole hearing and he was expected to spend the rest of his natural life in prison. It obviously does not mean that his appeals had been exhausted however as in 2008 another appeal was filed after he had been denied a motion to vacate his conviction. This too was denied.

Then came Matt Bevin's decision in December of 2019. One article indicated that while he granted Edge a pardon, unlike he did in some other cases, he did not indicate his reasoning. Also due to all of the controversy involved in Bevin's decisions and the cases it was not completely clear exactly what his ruling was in this. It is clear that Edge was released from prison but whether it was listed as “time served” or a full pardon that may wipe his slate clean I cannot say.

For his role Barry McManaway received a sentence of ten years and has long since been released. Randall Murphy received a 75 year sentence and remains in the Kentucky Department of Corrections system.