Corbin man arrested for murder, burglary in Wednesday double shooting

Paul Parsons is charged with two counts of murder and burglary in connection with an early morning shooting Wednesday.

A Corbin man is now behind bars charged with murder in connection with a double homicide that occurred early Wednesday morning at a residence on Fred Nash Lane, which is located off Gordon Hill just outside the Corbin city limits.

About 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Kentucky State Police announced that Paul E. Parsons, 47, had been charged with first-degree burglary and two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Denver Nicely, 47, of Corbin, and Joshua C. Wernicke, 29, of Keavy.

Whitley County Coroner Andy Croley pronounced the two dead at 3:15 a.m. Wednesday from multiple gunshot wounds. The manner of their death has been classified as a homicide.

Autopsies for both victims are scheduled for Thursday morning at the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort.

The two bodies were discovered in Nicely’s trailer after state police received a call about a possible shooting that occurred about 2:30 a.m.

Whitley County Detention Center records indicate that Parsons was booked into the jail about 10:26 a.m. Wednesday after being arrested by Corbin police on charges of alcohol intoxication and possession of marijuana.

Kentucky State Police Trooper Lloyd Cochran, public affairs officer at the London post, said in a news release Wednesday evening that upon further investigation Parsons was developed as a suspect and arrested in connection with the homicide case.

Parsons is currently lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center.

Robert Nash owns the trailer where the shooting took place and lives about 200 yards from it.

“My wife heard gunshots. She said, ‘I believe somebody is shooting firecrackers off or something another,’” Robert Nash noted.

His wife also thought maybe the horse was beating its metal food dish against the barn, but neither firecrackers nor the horse were apparently responsible for the noise.

Nash said that he went outside early this morning after the gunshots were heard and saw headlights from a Jeep trying to leave the residence.

“Then the … police and everybody started showing up,” Nash noted.

He said the scene was pretty chaotic until about 4 a.m. when things calmed down.

About 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, state police still had evidence markers placed along the roadway leading up the trailer that were about 50 to 100 yards from the actual residence.

Nash said that in the 60 years he has lived on the road, nothing like this has ever happened before on his road.

Nash said that Nicely had been renting the trailer from him since about December.

“He seemed to be a nice fellow,” Nash noted. “Nobody ever knows about these renters though.”

Tuesday incident

So far police haven’t announced a motive for Wednesday morning’s shooting.

Nash said that about 2 p.m. Tuesday, a man was “beat all to pieces” at the trailer where the shooting later took place.

“He made it to my cousin’s house. My cousin took him home or to the hospital or somewhere or another,” Nash noted.

Nash said he went up to the trailer in an attempt to see Nicely after that incident Tuesday, but Nicely wasn’t there.

A man, who was there, told Nash that a woman there had been assaulted at the residence.

“Her pants were torn and her blouse was torn,” Nash noted.

Cochran said Wednesday morning that police had interviewed neighbors, who live near the shooting scene, but at that time he couldn’t confirm whether the Tuesday incident took place.

KSP Detective James Royal is continuing the investigation in the double homicide. He was assisted at the scene by detectives and troopers from Post 11, the Corbin Police Department and the Whitley County Coroner’s Office.

Kentucky State Police are investigating a double homicide that occurred early Wednesday morning at a residence on Fred Nash Lane, which is located just outside the Corbin city limits.