A Logan County woman’s conviction and 12-year sentence in connection with a 2015 homicide have been upheld by the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

The state appeals court upheld the conviction of Carolyn Kinder, 39, who had been found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder by a Logan Circuit Court jury two years ago.

Kinder was one of three people charged in the death of Robert Wetton, who was found in 2015 in a barn at his Lewisburg home with a gunshot wound to the head.

Witnesses at the criminal trials for two defendants testified that Wetton and his wife, Pam Wetton, made a number of trips to Arizona together to buy large amounts of methamphetamine that would be brought back to Kentucky to be delivered to Earl Johnson.

The Wettons were arrested in Arizona during one trip in 2015, in which police found about 20 pounds of meth in their vehicle.

After they were bailed out of jail and returned to Kentucky, Bob Wetton contacted Johnson and reportedly told him he would cooperate with law enforcement if Johnson did not assist with his legal fees.

Johnson would go on to be convicted of complicity to murder, engaging in organized crime and multiple drug trafficking counts and receive a life sentence.

Kinder was Johnson’s paramour, and her trial featured testimony that her cellphone pinged off a cell tower near Wetton’s home shortly before his wife discovered his body.

Other witnesses included three Logan County Detention Center inmates who testified that Kinder discussed her involvement in the homicide during her time at the jail.

Kinder challenged her conviction on the grounds that the trial court should not have allowed Pam Wetton to testify remotely via Zoom.

Logan Circuit Judge Joe Hendricks allowed the remote testimony based on a request from the prosecution that cited safety concerns if Pam Wetton returned to Logan County to testify and her diagnosis of multiple health conditions, including heart disease and severe arthritis.

Kinder argued that having Pam Wetton testify remotely violated Kinder’s constitutional right to confront all witnesses against her face-to-face.

The state appeals court found that Pam Wetton’s health concerns were not sufficient to allow her to testify remotely, and that Kinder’s rights were violated.

In a 13-page ruling, however, a three-judge appeals court panel unanimously determined the error was harmless in the context of the trial.

“The remaining evidence against Kinder … absent Pam’s testimony, overwhelmingly demonstrated that Kinder was guilty of conspiracy to commit Bob’s murder,” Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Jeff Taylor said on behalf of the panel in the ruling.

Taylor cited the testimony of the three inmates who heard Kinder discuss the killing and her role in it.

“One inmate testified that Kinder was visibly upset upon her arrival to the jail and that she repeatedly talked about her involvement with a murder,” Taylor wrote in the ruling. “Kinder kept repeating that there was ‘blood everywhere’ as Johnson had shot the victim in the head while in a vehicle.”

That inmate also testified that Kinder said that she and Johnson were paid by “the big boys in Arizona” to kill Robert Wetton.

The appeals court also addressed Kinder’s arguments that the Logan Circuit Court should have granted her defense team’s motions for a mistrial after Detective Kevin Bibb of the Logan County Sheriff’s Office testified that he served the arrest warrant against Kinder at the probation and parole office and after the prosecution played video of Bibb reading Kinder’s indictment to her, which included a persistent felony offender count that was dismissed before trial.

The ruling from the appeals court found that those references to the probation and parole office and the persistent felony offender count were made in passing and ultimately did not create prejudice in the jury against Kinder.