Nearly a year later, no trial date set yet in Corbin killing

A London man and a Corbin woman remain jailed in the Whitley County Detention Center in lieu of $1 million cash bonds in connection to a homicide that occurred nearly one year ago.

On July 19, 2021, the Whitley County Grand Jury indicted Adam Alloway, now 38, and Melissa Summers, now 44, for murder, tampering with physical evidence, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and second-degree persistent felony offender.

On May 30, 2021, the duo is accused of shooting Timothy Seth Pennington resulting in his death, according to their indictment.

They are also accused of destroying, concealing, removing or altering physical evidence, which could have been used in an official proceeding, and possessed a .357 caliber pistol, according to their indictments.

Their indictments also alleged that they had been convicted in federal court, and were still on supervised release in that case, according to the indictments.

Summers and Alloway were arrested on May 31 in connection with Pennington’s May 30 shooting. Pennington succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead on June 3.

So far no trial date has been set in the case.

A pretrial conference in their case was held Monday in Whitley Circuit Court, during which Judge Dan Ballou scheduled another pretrial conference for July 5.

Then Corbin Police Lt. Coy Wilson, who is now a major, testified during a preliminary hearing in June 2021 that through interviews with Alloway, Summers and Andrew Pennington, Seth’s brother, he determined the course of events leading to the altercation.

According to Wilson’s testimony, he had been informed that Alloway, Summers, Seth Pennington and Andrew Pennington had attended a cookout type event, but when Andrew Pennington thought Seth had too much to drink, Alloway offered to drive Seth Pennington home.

On their way back to Pennington’s residence, Seth Pennington, who was sitting behind Alloway, allegedly attempted to choke him with a seatbelt. Alloway attempted to use a knife to cut the seatbelt. Alloway allegedly cut Seth Pennington’s face and Summers’ hand during the incident.

Summers and Alloway proceeded to take Seth Pennington home.

Upon arriving at the residence, Summers went into the residence with Seth Pennington, but Alloway became frustrated when Summers was gone for a while.

Alloway reportedly went into the residence, and Seth Pennington came out with a gun.

The fourth individual, who had remained in the vehicle, allegedly heard a gunshot prior to Summers and Alloway returning to the vehicle.

While in the car, Summers and Alloway both began looking for their cellphones, but were unable to locate them.

After taking the fourth individual to his vehicle, Andrew Pennington spoke with Summers and Alloway allegedly telling the two that he would take care of it if the phones were at Seth Pennington’s residence.

The duo told Andrew Pennington that they were not going back to Seth Pennington’s residence, but video footage of the vehicle leaving Adkins Street about the time of the shooting contradicts that statement.

During multiple interviews with Summers, she denied having returned to Seth Pennington’s residence a second time, but later admitted that the duo had returned to the residence.

In contrast, Alloway admitted during his first interview with police that the duo had returned.

Wilson testified that Alloway did admit to going back to Seth Pennington’s residence to retrieve the phones, but he told Wilson that once they got to the residence, Summers went to knock on the door and Seth Pennington came out and pointed a gun at her head.

Alloway said he tried to intervene and took the gun from Seth Pennington.

As he was trying to decock the revolver, which can be done by holding the gun’s hammer, pulling the trigger, and slowly letting down the hammer, Alloway said the gun went off.

In early December, Wilson filed an affidavit for a search warrant to obtain a DNA sample from Alloway and Summers using buccal or cheek swabs.

According to the affidavit, Corbin police recovered blood samples from within Seth Pennington’s apartment.

Correction

A June 3, 2021, article on the News Journal’s website, www.thenewsjournal.net, and in the June 9, 2021, print edition of the News Journal about the Seth Pennington shooting quoted Corbin police as saying that Seth Pennington had been out in downtown Corbin with Summers, Alloway, and his brother, Andrew Pennington on the evening of May 29, leaving when the bars closed.

The News Journal has since learned that Andrew Pennington was not present at any bar or restaurant on the evening in question.