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Kentucky.com
A man shot and killed a Perry County magistrate and a county employee
at a convenience store just outside of Hazard on Friday, then turned the
gun on himself, a county official said. The shooting
happened just before noon at Ben's Quick Stop on Ky. 28 at Grapevine in
Perry County. Jerry Fugate, 55, allegedly shot Magistrate
Jimmy Darrell Neace, 52, and county road department employee Lewallen
Caudill, 60. Fugate was known
as "Squirrel.". Perry County Deputy Coroner
Kyle Wolfe said it appeared to be a murder-suicide. Fugate had
previously worked for the Perry County government. Lewallen Caudill, who
operated heavy equipment for the county, was eating at the gas station
with Jimmy Darrell Neace before the shooting. Neace was a regular
diner at Ben's Quick Stop, which has tables and a kitchen. Neace had
been a magistrate for six years and was in his second term in office.
Neace was known for helping poor and elderly people in the county.
His brother, Don Neace, told the Lexington Herald Leader that he can't
understand why anyone would want to kill him. "It just
doesn't make sense," Don Neace said. Jimmy Darrell Neace
was married to Audrey Neace, they had a son Jacob Aaron Neace, who just
finished first grade. Neace had another son from a previous marriage,
Stephen Darrell Neace. Caudill was a Vietnam veteran and he cared
for his mother, who has been ill. Funeral arrangements for Jimmy
Darrell Neace and Lewallen Caudill are incomplete at this time.
Maggard's Mountain View Chapel in Hazard are in charge.


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