Published: April 04, 2008 11:20 pm      

High court to hear appeal in store rape, beating case

Justices to determine if double jeopardy violated

GREENUP — The Kentucky Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments later this month in the appeal of a man convicted in the 2004 rape and beating of a Russell video store manager.

The high court will take up the case of William Ryan Dixon at 10 a.m. April 16 during a session at Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law.

Dixon was convicted in 2005 of first-degree rape, first-degree robbery and first-degree assault in the July 2004 attack on Melissa Ruffing and the robbery of her then-employer, Movie Gallery, in the Ashland Plaza Shopping Center on Diederich Boulevard, and sentenced to 47 years in prison. Authorities said Dixon restrained Ruffing while another man, Wayne C. Murphy, raped and assaulted her.

At issue in Dixon’s appeal is whether his double jeopardy rights were violated by him being convicted of rape and assault for the same physical injuries to Ruffing, according to information posted on the supreme court’s Web site.

Also, justices will determine whether then-Greenup Circuit Judge Lewis Nicholls should have given jurors the option of convicting Dixon of the lesser offenses of facilitation to commit robbery and rape.

Dixon, 24, is currently housed in the Little Sandy Correctional Complex in Elliott County, according to the state’s online offender lookup system. If his conviction and sentence stand, he will not be eligible for parole until after he has served 85 percent of his sentence.

Murphy, who Ruffing identified as the man who raped her in the back room of the video store and then struck her in the head with a hammer hard enough to cave in her skull, was convicted on the same charges as Dixon in November 2006 and sentenced to life plus 40 years in prison.

A third defendant, Murphy’s former girlfriend, Tracy Chaffins, 23, also was charged in the attack but committed suicide last year several days before her case was scheduled to go to trial. Authorities alleged Chaffins acted as a lookout for Murphy and Dixon.

Ruffing, who underwent five surgeries to repair the damage to her skull, has filed two civil lawsuits alleging that her former employer put her safety in jeopardy and later fired her to avoid paying her worker’s compensation claims. Movie Gallery has denied wrongdoing.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.