LOUSIVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Police say a man was found dead after a traffic crash early Wednesday morning, but not everything was as it appeared to be. Now a Louisville man is in custody.
According to an arrest report, 37-year-old Matthew Shields was arrested just before 4 a.m. and charged with manslaughter.
Police say officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department saw a traffic crash on Dixie Highway near St. Andrews Church Road, just after midnight Wednesday morning. There was only one person in the vehicle: a man who was pulled out by rescuers and taken to University Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
That man was identified Wednesday morning by the Jefferson County Coroner's Office as 50-year-old Mark A. Franklin, of Hardin County, Kentucky.
But police say hospital staff told them Franklin had one injury that could not have come from the vehicle crash: a large puncture -- or stab wound -- in his chest.Â
His official cause of death, according to the coroner's office, was that stab wound.
According to the arrest report, Shields approached officers on the scene and told them that he owned the vehicle that was involved in the crash, and that he had been the victim of a carjacking.
Police say there was already a warrant for Shields' arrest on other charges, so they took him into custody for homicide detectives to interview.
While being questioned, Shields gave "several false statements" about the victim's injuries, according to the arrest report. Police say Shields told them the man had asked him for a ride, but after Shields had taken him to several different locations, the man threatened him.
According to the arrest report, Shields went on to give "several more conflicting stories" before he admitted to stabbing the man in the chest with a pocket knife "because he was scared."
"The defendant omitted the fact that he stabbed the victim until confronted about the victim being deceased," the arrest report states.
Police say officers asked Shields if the man brandished any weapons before he stabbed him, and Shields admitted that he did not. He further admitted that he had several opportunities to get out of the vehicle but chose not to, and in fact, "was half in and half out" of the vehicle when he stabbed the man, "and admitted he could have just walked away."
Police arrested Shields and charged him with first-degree manslaughter.
Shields is currently being held in Louisville Metro Corrections and is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning.
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