In the spring of 2018, a young man's life was tragically cut short on a sidewalk in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Stanley Paul McFalda, Jr., a 26-year-old male, was a decorated Army combat veteran who had served in Afghanistan. He was known as an avid hunter and fisherman, a gifted storyteller, and above all, a devoted father. A 2010 graduate of Meade County High School, he was remembered by friends and family as a great man and a warrior.
On the evening of Thursday, April 5, 2018, McFalda
was on Greenway Drive, where he became involved in an argument with an acquaintance, 32-year-old Bradley Joseph Anderson. The dispute escalated, and Anderson produced a handgun, shooting McFalda once in the head. Police arrived at approximately 9:30 p.m. to find McFalda's body on the sidewalk in front of Anderson's home. Investigators determined that McFalda had been unarmed at the time of the shooting. The incident was described by a police spokesman as a 'very much a public event.'
Following the shooting, Anderson remained at his residence and was taken in for questioning by the Elizabethtown Police. He was subsequently arrested and charged with murder. Anderson appeared in court the following morning via video conference and was held in the Hardin County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond, being considered both a flight risk and a danger to the community.
In May 2019, a Hardin County jury deliberated for about 70 minutes before finding Bradley Anderson guilty of murder. The jury, composed of nine men and three women, had also been given the options of first-degree manslaughter or acquittal. They ultimately recommended the maximum possible sentence of life in prison for the death of Stanley McFalda Jr.
