Lexington police charged Malachi Haynes in the August killing of Kevin Villanueva Gutierrez.

A Friday booking is the third name on a case that was already headed to a grand jury. WKYT and LEX18 listed Haynes's lead count as murder. The Herald-Leader listed it as complicity to murder. Those are different ways of charging participation in a killing, and neither list is a finding that he fired the shot. FOX 56 reported that Traisan Fields and Nolan Baker, both 18, already had a preliminary hearing on Oct. 5 and that their cases were sent to a grand jury.

WKYT reported that Malachi Haynes, 20, is charged in the killing of 26-year-old Kevin David Villanueva Gutierrez, who was shot on Cross Keys Road in Lexington on Aug. 29. LEX18 reported Haynes was charged Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, and is being held at the Fayette County Detention Center. The station said court documents filed in Fayette County District Court identify the victim as Kevin Villanueva, 26, and that he was found dead on Cross Keys Road just after 4 a.m. FOX 56 reported Lexington police announced the arrest Friday and that investigators had said Villanueva was shot around 4:15 a.m. A death on that road is the homicide. Friday's booking is who police now say is the third person charged in it.

The count list is where the outlets do not match. WKYT and LEX18 reported Haynes faces murder, first-degree robbery, two counts of receiving stolen property valued between $1,000 and $10,000, receiving stolen property valued at $10,000 or more, second-degree assault, first-degree wanton endangerment, three counts of first-degree criminal mischief, tampering with physical evidence, first-degree assault, and second-degree arson, plus an unrelated warrant. The Lexington Herald-Leader, citing court records, reported the same stack styled as complicity: complicity to murder, complicity to first-degree robbery, complicity to first-degree assault, complicity to second-degree assault, two counts of complicity to receiving stolen property in the $1,000-to-$10,000 range, complicity to receiving stolen property worth $10,000 or more, complicity to first-degree wanton endangerment, complicity to second-degree arson, complicity to tampering with physical evidence, and three counts of complicity to first-degree criminal mischief. The Herald-Leader, citing jail records, reported he is held on a $1 million bond on the complicity-to-murder charge and a $10,000 bond on the complicity-to-arson charge. Complicity is the charge Kentucky uses when it says someone is legally responsible for a crime another person committed. Murder, without that word, is the charge that says he himself killed. A newsroom's reading of the complaint decides which word the public sees. The complaint is still an accusation.

LEX18, citing the criminal complaint, reported the night as a run of alleged crimes before the shooting on Cross Keys Road. Witnesses saw Haynes and Nolan Baker, 18, breaking into vehicles alongside Traisan Fields, and surveillance video confirmed those sightings, the complaint says, according to LEX18. The group then drove a stolen vehicle to Chestnut Street and shot a man and a woman on nearby Ohio Street, and three vehicles were struck by gunfire, LEX18 reported. Investigators say the suspects then drove to Cross Keys Road, shot Villanueva, and stole a handgun he had with him. They fled, and the getaway vehicle was later found on fire at Tates Creek Golf Course. LEX18 reported security footage showed the group changing clothes before returning to an apartment complex on Centre Parkway. The Herald-Leader reported court documents say Haynes, Baker, and Fields are accused of shooting Villanueva Gutierrez, of stealing three cars, of shooting people on Ohio Street, and of setting one of the stolen cars on fire the same night. Those are the allegations in the complaint, as the outlets described them. They are not a finding of who fired.

Fields and Baker were already in the case. WKYT reported the two 18-year-olds face complicity-to-murder charges and that their cases have been sent to the grand jury. FOX 56 reported both had been arrested earlier, that Baker was arrested shortly before midnight on Oct. 1, and that after a preliminary hearing on Oct. 5 the cases against Fields and Baker were sent to a grand jury. FOX 56 reported a court date has not yet been scheduled for Haynes, and that all three are being held at the Fayette County Detention Center. LEX18 reported Fields was the first person charged and faces a list that includes murder, first-degree robbery, assault, arson, and tampering with physical evidence. An earlier probable-cause finding against two other defendants is not a finding against Haynes. Detectives are still asking for information, WKYT and LEX18 reported. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.