Breathitt County Murderer is Longest Serving Kentucky Death Row Inmate

Kentucky’s longest-held death row inmate, who killed 3 people in Breathitt County in 1980, will remain in prison after a court upheld his sentence of capital punishment.

Karu Gene White has been on death row since 1980 for a triple homicide in Breathitt County and has subsequently lost repeated appeals in both state and federal courts. 

His most recent application for relief centered around claims he had inadequate trial counsel who failed to investigate and present mitigating evidence on his behalf.

On the evening of February 12, 1979, White, then 20, and two juvenile accomplices used a crow bar to beat a blind 75-year-old and two other seniors while robbing them. 

After White and his accomplices bludgeoned to death the men and woman; they took a billfold containing $7,000, coins, and a handgun. 

The victims, Charlie Gross, 75, his wife Lula Gross, 74, and Lula’s brother, Sam Chaney, 79, were killed inside the small general store they operated at Haddix in Breathitt County. 

White was arrested on July 27, 1979, and was sentenced to death on March 29, 1980 in Powell County for the murder of the three elderly Breathitt County residents. 

According to records, Mary Lou Herald, the Grosses’ granddaughter said she was grateful to those who upheld the decision to keep White on Death Row.

In the 2010, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd halted the death penalty when he issued an injunction ove ra range of concerns about executions, including the executing intellectually disabled people. 

Kentucky has not executed anyone since that ruling. There are currently 25 people on death row in the commonwealth.

In 2008, Marco Allen Chapman was the last person to be executed in Kentucky.