POWELL COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Winchester man charged with murder in Powell County pleaded not guilty in connection with a drug possession death on Friday morning.
Two funerals in one week for two separate overdose deaths. One in Winchester and a second in Stanton.
"I had to watch them lower her down and her casket close. While he's alive. He's breathing," Kaylieb Thompson describes. Thompson is the boyfriend of Reacheal Dawson, one of the women who died from an "apparent drug overdose."
Brian P. Epperson, 44, is charged with possession of a controlled substance. Blank capsules filled with methamphetamine that Winchester Police say are connected to the death of 29-year-old Reacheal Dawson.
In 32-year-old Kristen Morris's case, Epperson is charged not only with possession, but also murder. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in Powell County Court on Friday morning.
"I just wanted to be in the courtroom. I've never heard Brian Epperson's voice and I want to hear what this man sounds like. I need to hear lies saying- pleading not guilty," said Thompson.
You heard from Thompson on Thursday about the devastating call he received that Dawson had died. He says he saw her for himself that same night. "That image I'll never get out of my head. I'll never get the image of that blue bag when they unzipped it and Reacheal was laying in it. I'll never get that out."
According to a complaint warrant, Dawson was found dead in a room at a Red Roof Inn in Winchester on June 27, which Epperson rented out.
The police complaint reads that capsules were found in Epperson's truck at the Red Roof Inn. The police say they were similar ones that they believe caused Morris's overdose death at an Airbnb in Stanton on May 31. The same Airbnb police say Epperson had secured.
The document reads that police were photographing Epperson's phone when they located where he had purchased blank capsules from Amazon, along with several sexual devices. Investigators asked Epperson if he knew the females were dead, to which he stated he did not.
The citation also reads, "this does not align with him on both occasions searching information in regards to overdose deaths in his Google search history. Epperson did admit he had placed the methamphetamine inside of the blank capsule."
"Reacheal never did a hard drug in her life. She never did drugs in her life. She never did pills. She never did any type of powder's in her life. She never did no type of drugs," Thompson said adamantly.
Investigators have not confirmed any potential motives, but Thompson has his own suspicions.
"How can you not tell me that less than a month- in less than a month two women," he said. "That are- one is Spanish and one is Black. Tell me how this is not a hate crime."
Thompson says he hopes Epperson gets the death penalty.
"I need Brian Epperson to be put away for the rest of his, literally the rest of his life," Thompson said.
Epperson is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Powell County on Tuesday, July 15 at 1 p.m.
