LEXINGTON (KY)
WKYT
The man charged with the murder of a lexington priest appeared in court today. Jason Anthony Russell, 26, was arrested in Ironton, Ohio last week.
Lexington police obtained an arrest warrant for Russell last week from Fayette County District Court. Russell is charged with the murder of 78-year-old Joseph Pilger, who was found dead in his southeast Lexington home on Dec. 5. The Fayette County Coroner’s office ruled Pilger died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries.
Police say Russell had stayed with Pilger at some point, but didn’t know if Russell was living with the priest at the time of the murder. Russell, who was convicted in Henderson County in July 1997 of second-degree robbery and first-degree criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, finished a prison sentence on Oct. 13, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said. Police recovered Pilger’s car, which was reported missing, on Dec. 5 in the area in southern Ohio near where Russell was arrested.
Pilger pleaded guilty to sexual abuse in 1995 for abusing three brothers and their cousin in 1968 and 1969, when he was their pastor in Morganfield in western Kentucky. The victims were younger than 15 and serving as altar boys at the parish.
