Wanda English Burnett, Editor

Police from three states, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, became involved after a car was stolen from a Versailles residence late Friday night, March 14.

According to Versailles Town Marshal Joe Mann, the call that a vehicle was missing came in about 12:57 a.m. Saturday morning. The car had actually been taken earlier, but not reported until that time. The marshal immediately began the process of looking for the vehicle and noted with the help of dispatcher Amanda Smith, was able to work together eventually with two other states until the matter was resolved.

In the meantime, the suspect had fled to Trenton, OH, where he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend leaving her in critical condition. Armed with this knowledge, and the fact local police had been told initially that the suspect had planned to spend the weekend at the Versailles residence he stole the car from, they were concerned he would return to the area. Marshal Mann and Deputy Lee Mathews staked out the residence in case the suspect did return.

But, Jesse Lee Dunaway, 33, went on to Kentucky, where he was arrested about 6:30 a.m. Saturday and taken to the Campbell County Jail. He will face several charges, some of those being Attempted Aggravated Murder, Aggravated Burglary, and from Ripley County, Criminal Conversion, Unauthorized Entry of a Motor Vehicle and Auto Theft. Mann explained that a couple of those charges could be bumped up to higher felonies if it is proved the suspect committed the crimes he is charged with in Ohio.

The marshal said it was a collaborative effort of a number of agencies in three states that went very smoothly. He was thankful for the professional dispatch efforts of both Amanda Smith and Randal Benjamin. “They did an awesome job,” he told The Versailles Republican.

Dunaway, who is from Southgate, was apparently visiting acquaintances in Versailles, when he decided to take the car.

Versailles police had already had a busy evening when they responded to a call to dispatch about a suspected drunk driver near the stoplight in Versailles. Mann noted that they caught up to a vehicle that matched the description given and after getting the probable cause warrant, pulled it over just west of Holton on US 50.

There they discovered Kip Borne, 35, of Erlanger, KY, could not pass the field sobriety test. He was taken into custody and to the Ripley County Jail where he tested .31. Since the jail can’t keep someone with such a high alcohol level, he was transported by ambulance to Margaret Mary Community Hospital, Batesville, where he later tested even higher. He was kept there until his alcohol level was safe and was returned to the jail. Deputy Marshal Mathews noted that .32 could be a fatal number when talking about alcohol levels.

Borne was booked at the Ripley County Jail on charges of Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated with a prior, which authorities say was in the last year.