Defense Attorney charged $500 during Amber Spradlin hearing by Floyd Circuit Court

By Roberta Cantrell

BSN Editor

Randy O’Neal, the defense attorney in the Amber Spradlin murder case that was charged with contempt of court earlier last week was fined $500 during a hearing Monday in Floyd Circuit Court.

Special Judge Eddy Coleman chastised defense attorney Randy O’Neal for using three, “basically phony citations to case law,” in his motion to dismiss the charges of murder and tampering with physical evidence against M.K. McKinney, along with charges of tampering with physical evidence against Dr. Michael McKinney and Josh Mullins.

The motion to dismiss the charges was denied.

In a response to the court for the contempt of court charge last Friday O’Neal stated “I admit that I made a completely unintentional mistake by filing the wrong version of the motion to dismiss the indictment, which did not contain an updated footnote with the correct citations that were intended to be included,” O’Neal said.

He said the citations included in the original motion to dismiss the case against Michael “M.K.” McKinney- charged with murder and eight counts of tampering with physical evidence- were “incorrect and do not pertain to the motion to dismiss in any way.”

“I was not attempting to rely on them in support of the motion,” he wrote.

He said he was preparing the motion on a remote connection from his home computer, when the connection lagged and he saved a copy of the motion on his OneDrive server, but left the original on his office computer. When he eventually submitted an altered version of the motion, he said, the incorrect version was edited and submitted.

He continued, saying he believed filing an amended motion with the corrected citations was in compliance of what he was being asked when the court questioned the validity of the motion citations. “I should have provided an explanation to clarify how this occurred when I filed the Amended Order,” he wrote. “However, I never imagined that a simple mistake like this would evolve into something of this magnitude.”

He said rumors about AI use or any attempt to “pull one over on the Court” are “completely outrageous.”

He provided a timeline of events in his explanation, saying, “I am hopeful that these messages will dispel any concerns the Court may have regarding my candor. I would never intentionally make a false statement in court.” Though a new attorney, Steven Romines, has

entered the case representing M.K. McKinney, O’Neal said he will continue to represent him in the case as well.

All three defendants entered not guilty pleas to an additional charge of tampering with physical evidence after the grand jury returned superseding indictments on August 14 of tampering with physical evidence based on new information obtained by investigators.

The new charge, which applies to all three men is complicity to tamper with physical evidence for planting a knife in the couch where Spradlin was murdered.

The knife was not used in the murder but was placed in the couch to suggest it was the weapon.

Another ruling was made that Dr. Michael McKinney will be allowed to be in his Prestonsburg dental office Floyd County Smiles but only to oversee daily operations with varying starting times until 5 p.m. each day while on home incarceration. The Kentucky Board of Dentistry suspended his license earlier this month. He will be required to wear GPS monitoring at all times.

Also, during the hearing, defendant Josh Mullins was granted a reduction in bond from $100,000 to $50,000 cash.

A pretrial hearing has been scheduled for October 24, in Floyd Circuit Court.