In the late summer of 2016, a young life was abruptly cut short in Greenville, Kentucky, leaving a community in mourning and a family shattered. Justin Michael Dukes, a 25-year-old Caucasian male, was fatally shot on the afternoon of Monday, August 15, 2016. The incident unfolded at a residence on Rogers Avenue, turning a place of presumed safety into a scene of violence and loss.
The events leading to Dukes' death reportedly began with an argument. The dispute was with Robert T.
Mason, a man connected to the family through marriage to Dukes' cousin. For reasons that remain unclear, the verbal altercation escalated dramatically. Mason is said to have fired multiple shots at Dukes, inflicting fatal wounds. Emergency services were called to the scene around 12:57 p.m., but their efforts were in vain. The Muhlenberg County Deputy Coroner pronounced Justin Dukes dead at the scene at 1:16 p.m., with a subsequent autopsy confirming that he died from multiple gunshot wounds.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, law enforcement launched an investigation that quickly led to a suspect. Robert T. Mason was arrested and charged with the murder of Justin Dukes. He was taken into custody and held at the Muhlenberg County Jail. During a preliminary hearing on August 22, 2016, Mason entered a plea of not guilty. The case was then presented to a grand jury, which later returned an indictment against Mason for the murder charge, setting the stage for a trial. At the time of his death, Justin Dukes was a father and was engaged to be married, leaving behind a young son and his fiancée.
