COVINGTON, Ky. — An innocent victim was in the wrong place at the wrong time, according to the Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney.
Virgil Stewart, 60, was shot and killed on the 15th Street Bridge in Covington last month while walking home from work.
Covington Chief of Police Brian Valenti said Latoya Dale was arrested for murder last week. She was also charged with first-degree robbery.
Rob Sanders, Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney, said Stewart was shot during a planned robbery involving Dale and another suspect.
"No known connection to the victim in this case," Sanders said. "It appears to be a random act of violence. These two were down there looking to execute a strong-arm robbery. (The) victim was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Witnesses described seeing two people standing over him ... demanding that he give it up, give the money, or something of that effect. He unfortunately died of his injuries."
Sanders said Dale told investigators the person she was with fired the gun that killed Stewart. He said the suspects got away with $6 from Stewart before he died.
"Absolutely tragic that someone would lose their life over $6. I wish I could say it’s shocking. It’s only shocking in the enormity of the loss," Sanders said. "Criminals do incredibly stupid things. This is one where people could spend the rest of their life in prison over $6. Not to mention our victim lost his life over it."
For the past month, Sanders said Covington police detectives have been poring through Ring doorbell cameras near Madison Avenue and 15th Street.
"They’ve put in tons of hours on the case — old school police work ethic meets new school police tactics, going after digital evidence, finding security videos that are everywhere these days," Sanders said.
He said police were able to identify a suspicious vehicle they believe was fleeing the scene.
"They pored over a number of other videos involving other similar vehicles, police body worn camera videos, in-car dash cam videos," Sanders said. "They came up with other contacts police had with what they believed to be the same vehicles."
Sanders said that ultimately led them to Dale. A second suspect connected with the robbery is already in jail on unrelated charges. More charges related to the homicide could soon come.
"Anybody participating in the robbery is just as guilty as the person who pulled the trigger for causing the victim’s death," he said.
Sanders said the killing was senseless and Stewart was an unfortunate innocent victim.
“Why anybody would target a man walking home during the early evening hours carrying bags from a dollar store, that’s beyond me,” Sanders said.
Dale has a preliminary hearing in a Kenton County courtroom on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
If found guilty, and convicted, Sanders said she could face 10-20 years in prison for the first-degree robbery charge, and 20-50 years, to life, in prison for the murder charge.
WCPO will update this story once more information becomes available related to the second suspect.
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