(UPDATE) Kentucky Man Gets Life After Family of 5 Killed by Arrows, Fire

The eastern Kentucky jury that heard the case of a man accused in the bow-and-arrow murder of a husband and wife and the burning death of their three young children returned a curious split verdict in Clay Circuit Court in Manchester.

Clayton Jackson, 30, was found guilty Wednesday of murder and arson in the deaths of 4-year-old Michael Sturgill, 3-year-old Robert Sturgill and 18-month-old Jordan Sturgill. But, following two days of deliberations, the jury was unable to decide whether Jackson was responsible for the deaths of the children's parents, Chris and Amanda Sturgill, who were killed with a bow and arrows. The jury was also indecisive on the theft of Chris Sturgill's coal truck.

Friday, the jury recommended that Jackson serve a sentence of life without parole for each of the three murders. The jury recommended a maximum 50-year sentence for each arson charge.

Jackson had been friends with Chris Sturgill since childhood, Jackson's attorney said. There was no physical evidence linking Jackson to the case. The prime evidence against him was testimony from other inmates. The prosecution said Jackson was trying to have an affair with his friend's wife.

"It is an unusual verdict," Jackson's public defender, Barbara Carnes, told AOL News. "Whenever you have three dead children it is always a risk to go to a jury. Quite frankly, I thought they would convict on everything or they would see there was a lot of reasonable doubt and they would find him not guilty. I was certainly surprised the way the verdict came back."

She said she "absolutely" plans to file an appeal.

The commonwealth's attorney, Gary Gregory, called the verdict "brilliant."

"We are pleased with it," Gregory told AOL News. "By not returning a verdict of at least not guilty against the two adults that gives me two shots at an apple -- it leaves open the possibility that we can prosecute him in the future for the murders if we discover any additional evidence."

Firefighters found the victims' bodies in their fire-gutted single-wide mobile home on the morning of Feb. 6, 2004, in Roark, a community in Leslie County, about 90 miles southeast of Lexington. The county coroner later determined Chris and Amanda Sturgill had died after being shot through the chest with an arrow. The children died of smoke inhalation as the home burned to the ground around them.

"The arrow that was shot through Chris Sturgill was still in his body. The medical examiner said his death would have been almost instantaneous because it pierced his heart," Gregory said. "We did not recover a projectile [from] Amanda because she was burned beyond recognition. But, from the internal examination we were able to determine she had a 4-inch downward path [where] an arrow penetrated her body."

An arson investigator determined the perpetrator started the fire with a pile of clothes that had been placed on top of Amanda Sturgill. It is estimated the fire could have smoldered for 40 to 45 minutes before it took off. As a result, the children, who were left to fend for themselves, would have suffered the most, Gregory said.

"The children did not die instantaneously. They were alive when the fire began and died from carbon monoxide poisoning," the veteran prosecutor said. "The doors were locked and two of the children were found near the front door in an attempt to get out. The smallest one was found with his head halfway in a closet trying to hide, which would be a normal reaction for a child to do. Their bodies were burned badly."

Gregory added: "I would have felt better if [the children had been] shot and not made to suffer. I can imagine them hollering for Mom and Dad when the house began to catch fire. I can't even imagine what went through their minds."

Chris Sturgill worked as a coal driver and his coal truck -- a large dump truck -- was found burned out and abandoned by a nearby strip mine. No one was found with the truck and Gregory said any potential physical evidence was destroyed in the fire. Likewise, no physical evidence linking the killer to the slayings was found inside the trailer.

The only item of interest, Gregory said, was a partially burned bow that was found in the bedroom where the youngest child died, but there was nothing found with the bow to identify whether it was used in the crime or who it may have belonged to.

"In that area bow hunting is very common," Carnes said. "It certainly showed me that whoever did this -- it was just a moment of some sort of rage. It doesn't make sense to me that someone would plan to murder a family and bring along a bow and arrows."

According to Carnes, Jackson and Chris Sturgill grew up together. She described them as "best friends" and "close as brothers."

"When the fire [was discovered] a detective was on the scene and Clayton's mother came their looking for him," Carnes said. "She thought her son [could have] burned in the fire also. Our theory is from that day, he became the first and only suspect in this case."

Carnes said her client denied he was at the Sturgills' home at the time of the killings and voluntarily gave investigators a full statement, along with fingerprints and DNA hair samples. "They couldn't have compelled that to the court -- he willingly did all of that," she said.

Jackson also voluntarily allowed police to search his home. It was during that search that detectives found an illegal firearm that belonged to his grandfather -- a shotgun with a shortened barrel. Jackson was arrested and later pleaded guilty to possession of an illegal firearm, for which he received a three-year prison sentence, Carnes said.

It was while in federal custody, Gregory alleges, that investigators were able to gather enough circumstantial evidence against Jackson to present the case to a grand jury. In November 2007, Jackson was indicted on five counts of capital murder, as well as arson and theft.

Evidence that was ultimately presented against Jackson included testimony that:

• He was an accomplished bow shooter.
• He had been learning how to drive the victim's coal truck.
• He told a neighbor that police would not find any fingerprints because he bought gloves the day before.

The two most damming pieces of circumstantial evidence, however, were a letter Jackson mailed, as well as a statement another inmate said he made, Gregory said.

The letter was sent to the Kentucky State Police and in it Jackson put himself at the scene of the crime, contradicting earlier statements he had given to police. He said two other men had killed the family because of a meth deal gone wrong and that he was in the bathroom when the slayings occurred and fled before the fire was set. The two men, however, denied any involvement and told police Chris Sturgill was not into drugs, Gregory said.

Gregory said Jackson freely admitted aspects of the crime to his fellow inmate.

"He made a statement while he was in prison to one of his cellmates," the prosecutor said. "Basically, he used the word 'we' -- 'We burnt them.' "

Jackson "had been trying to have a relationship with Amanda," Gregory said.

When the case went to trial this month, Carnes attempted to sway the jury away from the circumstantial evidence in the case and tried to show that Jackson could not have ditched the coal truck and walked home because the river between the two was flooded at the time. In the end, however, the jury sided with prosecutors -- at least in regard to the deaths of the children.

"I feel there was not an investigation," Carnes said. "There was four years of trying to build a case against Clayton and disregarding other leads. They couldn't build a case so they sent him to federal prison over his grandpa's old shotgun, and while he was there, of course, snitches started contacting the detectives, so that was their case -- nothing other than two federal informants, snitches."

Carnes added: "Let me say this too: Even at trial I asked the detectives, 'So are you saying jealousy is the motive?' I don't know the exact quote, but it was something like 'Could have been.' I was like, 'We are trying to kill somebody and we don't know the motive?' "

Gregory admitted there were "other persons of interest, other suspects" but said detectives were able to "eliminate them by all available forensic examinations." The prosecutor said each of the slayings would have made for the perfect murder if not for Jackson's desire to talk.

Gregory had pushed for the death sentence, but was satisfied with the jury's recommendation, acccording to the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader.

"I do feel like justice has been served with regard to the children," Gregory said. "It was the strongest sentence possible, short of death."