EDDYVILLE – A Murray man faces terrorist threatening charges after allegedly stating he was going to “shoot up” and “blow up” Lyon County Middle School, according to the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.
A news release from LCSO said an investigation involving a 30-year-old Murray man, Steven M. Jester, began on Thursday evening after Kentucky State Police (KSP) Dispatch received a third-party complaint alleging the man had made multiple threatening statements about the safety of the Lyon County Middle School while he was at work in Murray.
“Basically, co-workers of Mr. Jester had become alarmed when he made some statements after receiving a message from someone on his phone on the 26th of January, and they didn’t initially report it to their supervision until Mr. Jester had actually left work,” Lyon County Sheriff Brent White told the Ledger & Times in a telephone interview. “… After he left, several co-workers notified supervision that he had made those statements, and that’s how the ball got rolling. … At least one employee notified us. We’re dispatched out of the state police post there at Mayfield, so that was how it all started.”
Deputies and KSP troopers, along with Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives personnel, began investigating the threats and speaking with witnesses and Jester’s co-workers. As evidence was being collected in Calloway County, Jester was located at a residence in Eddyville, only a few blocks away from the Lyon County School campus.
LCSO deputies and officers from the Eddyville Police Department made contact with the man at the Eddyville home. White said Jester reportedly had a fiancée in Eddyville and was planning to permanently move to Eddyville in the coming months. White said that when the law enforcement agencies searched the home, the officers and deputies located several firearms, firearms components and various types of ammunition in Jester’s possession. They were subsequently taken into evidence.
“He had, in fact, moved some firearms ammunition from his home in Murray up to a residence in Eddyville, which was only a few blocks from the school,” White said. “We have since seized those firearms and ammunition and the additional firearm components that he had.”
White added, “One of the things that was really concerning is that one of the AR-15 components that he had shoots a bullet that will go through our rifle-plated armor, and that was very disturbing to us. We hadn’t seen that before.”
Following an interview with law enforcement, Jester was transported to an area hospital for a mental health evaluation. Once he was cleared, Jester was released from the facility back into the community around 3:30 am Friday, Jan 27, White said. Later Friday, deputies from CCSO and LCSO worked together in the continuing investigation before petitioning the Calloway County District Court for an arrest warrant for the offender.
“The next morning, we deployed several officers at the school because we actually didn’t know where he was at that time,” White said. “We petitioned Calloway County for warrants for this gentleman for what he had done. … (The warrants were) signed by the judge around five minutes after 5 (pm), and we had him in custody at 5:15. Nobody got hurt, and that was the main thing.”
White said he and LCSO Chief Deputy Sam Adams arrested Jester on Magnolia Street in Eddyville. He was served with a Calloway County Complaint Warrant charging him with two counts of terrorist threatening in the second degree (Class D Felony).
White said the investigation revealed that Jester had reportedly been upset by the way one middle school student had allegedly acted toward another student with whom Jester was familiar.
“Jester is alleged to have threatened to get a gun and go to the Lyon County Middle School to shoot a student and then shoot up the school,” the news release said. “In addition, he also reportedly stated he was going to blow up the school; thus, the reason for the two counts charging him with terrorist threatening.”
Jester was lodged in the Crittenden County Detention Center.
White thanked Calloway County Sheriff Nicky Knight and the CCSO personnel that helped with the investigation, as well as the 42nd Judicial Circuit Commonwealth Attorney’s Office for assisting in procuring the warrant for Jester’s arrest. The investigation is continuing by CCSO Deputy Adam Doss and LCSO Deputy Sam Adams.
In addition to the aforementioned agencies, White said both sheriff’s offices were assisted by the ATF’s Paducah Satellite Office, KSP Post 1, the Eddyville Police Department, the Western Kentucky Violent Crimes Task Force, the 56th Judicial Circuit Commonwealth Attorney’s Office and the Lyon County School District.
“It was a great conglomerate of several agencies working together over a period of two days to make sure that our students were safe, that this was all done correctly and that we had (Jester) in custody and actually verified it did actually happen.”
Individuals facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
