BARDSTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's a surreal feeling for Marilyn Keene to stand in a large grassy field off Camptown Road in Bardstown. There, a large red sign, trimmed with crucifixes, seeks justice for her son, Jamie Keene.
"It feels like that we've been taken all the way back to the beginning," she said, as she reflected beside the sign Monday afternoon.
According to authorities, her son, Jamie, was stabbed to death at a Bardstown home just across the street from the grassy field in late-April.
"I know the character of my son, and he would not walk into a situation where he thought that he was going to be hurt or endangering himself or somebody else," the somber mother said.
Jamie Keene, 32, was found dead from stab wounds April 26 at a duplex on Camptown Road in Bardstown, Kentucky.
Keene and her friend, Kecia Copeland, had hoped the alleged attacker, Jonathan Silva, would be arrested and charged for Jamie's death. But, just days ago, a Nelson County grand jury didn't indict Silva, because it found he was acting in self-defense as dictated by Kentucky's "Castle Doctrine."
"The case was investigated thoroughly for weeks by detectives and officers from the Bardstown Police Department," the Nelson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Office wrote in a news release. "They interviewed witnesses, collected pertinent security video of events, canvassed the neighborhood, collected evidence, secured autopsy reports, collected social media data, cell phone data, financial data and all relevant evidence."
Copeland and Keene — who says she's 100% confident the stabbing wasn't in self-defense — have demonstrated against the grand jury's decision in two protests in recent days.
James Keene, 32, was found dead from stab wounds April 26 at a duplex on Camptown Road in Bardstown, Kentucky.
"The grand jury's decision — it left us speechless," said Copeland. "Many in the community had no words."
Despite the grand jury's exoneration, Silva is now behind bars on wanton endangerment charges after police allege he fired shots into the air in a residential neighborhood.
The Nelson County Sheriff's Office said Silva and Keene's brother, Jordan Keene, drove past each other, coincidentally, near Mount Washington on Friday as both headed back toward Bardstown.
According to a Facebook post by the sheriff's office, both men ended up in a quiet Bardstown neighborhood where Silva pulled into a driveway on Aspen Street and used a stolen gun to shoot twice into the, air with Keene's brother and others just short distances away.
"In the words of Isaac Newton, what goes up must come down," the sheriff's office wrote. "Not knowing where the bullets would come down everyone that was outside in the area were at risk. Each person in the proximity were the residents and children, the Keene family and the vehicle behind them."
Silva is now charged with eight felony counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree, and the sheriff says more charges could be coming.
Copeland said, "It's mind-boggling."
After participating in protests, Copeland and Keene said the latest incident gives them new reason to keep digging for answers and fighting for justice.
"This is not a normal mourning process, because it feels like it just keeps happening over again, but we just have to keep pushing until we get justice for Jamie," said Keene.
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