LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — A Fayette County judge declared a mistrial Tuesday in the retrial of William Parker Brown, the Lexington man whose murder conviction was overturned by the Kentucky Supreme Court earlier last year.
Court session records filed June 2, show Judge Travis presiding over a criminal jury trial in circuit court. The records indicate defense attorney Keith Mulligan filed a motion for mistrial on the morning of the second day of trial. The judge sustained the motion and granted the mistrial at 10:17 a.m.
Brown was originally convicted by a Fayette County jury of murdering 62-year-old Ava Creech, whose body was found in October 2020, bound, gagged, and decomposing in a closet in her apartment on Victoria Way in Lexington.
Crime
William Brown sentenced to life in prison for 2020 murder
The jury also convicted him of receiving stolen property, being a felon in possession of a handgun, and being a second-degree persistent felony offender. The trial court sentenced him to life in prison.
The Kentucky Supreme Court overturned that conviction in a September 2025 opinion, finding prosecutors withheld recorded jail phone calls from the defense and made improper comments about Brown's decision to testify. The court remanded the case to Fayette County Circuit Court for a new trial.
It is unclear when a new trial date will be scheduled.
