Kevon Lawless pleaded guilty to murder in the 2020 deaths of Brandon Waddles and Trinity Randolph, and the sentence reported Thursday is 35 years.

Monday's plea, as WKYT reported it, replaces a conviction the Kentucky Supreme Court threw out. The 35-year figure is the term WLKY, WKYT and WDRB all reported. WKYT also wrote that the murder counts were 35 years each, burglary 20, and a firearm count 10, and that those terms were recommended to run consecutively for a total of 35 years. Consecutive terms of that length are not 35 years. The stations did not print an order that reconciles the two.

WKYT and WDRB reported Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, that Kevon Lawless pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to 35 years after a plea to multiple felonies, including murder, in the deaths of Brandon Waddles and Trinity Randolph. WLKY reported he pleaded guilty to murder in those 2020 deaths and has been sentenced to 35 years. WKYT, citing the office of Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney Gerina D. Whethers, reported the sentence as 35 years on each murder count, 20 years on burglary, and 10 years on possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, and that all of those sentences were recommended to run consecutively for a total of 35 years. WLKY reported a 35-year sentence and did not print those count-by-count numbers. Whethers said in a release the stations reported Thursday, "This defendant was first found responsible by a jury for the senseless killing of a father and his three-year-old daughter, and now, has fully admitted to his responsibility. At last, after six years since their deaths, we have justice for Brandon Waddles and Trinity Randolph."

WKYT reported Waddles and Randolph were shot after 1 p.m. on Aug. 14, 2020, in the 3700 block of Kahlert Avenue, near Strader Avenue. The station reported a jury convicted Lawless in 2022 of two counts of murder and one count of burglary and that he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. WLKY reported he had been serving two life sentences until last year. The Kentucky Supreme Court's case summary for Lawless v. Commonwealth, 2022-SC-0507-MR, an opinion dated Oct. 23, 2025, says he was convicted of both murders and sentenced to life in prison. The summary says that during deliberations a juror told the rest of the jury about a television report that the judge had arrested a key prosecution witness for perjury, that another juror then said they could no longer make a decision truthfully, and that the trial court excused one juror, seated an alternate, and the jury convicted. The summary says the court reversed, finding the extra-judicial information caused a structural error where prejudice was presumed. WKYT reported Judge McKay Chauvin should have declared a mistrial, that a juror who saw the news felt they could no longer decide truthfully, and that the defense motion for a mistrial was denied.

The Supreme Court summary also says the Commonwealth could not, on a retrial, again seek the death penalty, because the first jury had determined the death penalty was inappropriate. Thursday's plea stories did not mention the death penalty. They described the new disposition as a guilty plea and a 35-year sentence. WKYT reported that after the reversal the case went back to Jefferson Circuit Court, that Lawless was released from state custody in November 2025, and that he was booked into Louisville's jail on a $1 million bond. WLKY reported he was arrested again last November. The 2022 life sentence is the judgment the Supreme Court reversed. The plea WKYT placed on Monday is the new admission. The 35-year total is what WLKY, WKYT and WDRB reported. The consecutive recommendation WKYT printed does not, on its own numbers, produce that total. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.