Ralph Baze was sentenced to death by the State of Kentucky for the murders of two police officers
According to court documents Ralph Baze was wanted for five felony warrants out of Ohio. When Sheriff Bennett and Deputy Briscoe attempted to arrest him Baze would shoot both Officers with a semi automatic rifle
Ralph Baze would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Where Is Ralph Baze Now
Ralph Baze is incarcerated at Kentucky State Penitentiary
Ralph Baze Case
Ralph Baze shot each of the officers three times in the back with an SKS assault rifle at a time when the officers were attempting to serve five felony fugitive warrants from Ohio on him. Sheriff Bennett was killed first when Baze shot him three times in the back from the cover of a large stump and brush pile near his secluded cabin. Baze then turned his attention toward Deputy Briscoe. Briscoe was pinned down by the semi-automatic rifle fire from Baze, and the officer crouched down and returned fire from across the hood of the police cruiser. Briscoe fired two full clips from his 9 mm. pistol as Baze was walking towards him firing from his 35 round banana clip as he proceeded. With his weapon empty, Deputy Briscoe turned and tried to run away. Before he could run ten feet, he was shot in the back twice. Baze pursued the officer, stood over him and fired his rifle into the back of the Deputy Sheriff’s head.
Baze told police after his arrest, “I shot him in the back of the head. I understand I was killing the man. There was no doubt in my mind.” Later, he voluntarily admitted, “You tell them that you have got the right man. I’m the one that killed them son of a bitches.”
Sheriff Bennett and Deputy Briscoe were seeking Baze in order to serve fugitive warrants from Ohio on the twice convicted felon. The Ohio warrants were for felonious assault of a police officer with a deadly weapon, bail jumping, receiving stolen property and flagrant nonsupport.
Baze knew that Kentucky police were looking for him on the Ohio charges because the Sheriff and other officers went to his rural cabin and spoke to his wife in an effort to locate him. Baze went to Ohio for two weeks in the beginning of mid-January 1992. His wife had telephoned him in Ohio to warn him that “they had been looking for him, and, that Steve Bennett read me the warrants.” Baze purchased an assault rifle and ammunition while in Ohio and returned to Kentucky on January 28 with the rifle. Baze testified that he was intending to leave to go to Florida. About mid-day on January 30, 1992, Deputy Briscoe drove to the Baze cabin. Baze was hiding inside the cabin and his wife told the Deputy that he was not home. A number of relatives were both inside and outside the cabin. Although he tried to escape through a trap door in the bedroom floor, Baze was ultimately confronted by the Deputy who showed him a list of the Ohio charges. Baze refused to be taken into custody because he said he did not want the inconvenience of having to wait eight months for his case to go to court. Briscoe left to get help. Baze then crossed the road and positioned himself behind the cover of a large stump and brush pile behind where the officers would park their cruisers if they returned. When they did return, Baze’s wife walked out in front of the cabin and hollered at the officers, drawing their attention. Baze was behind them on the high ground with cover and the sun at his back and his SKS assault rifle. Baze fired at the officers while Sheriff Bennett was looking away in the opposite direction.
After he killed both officers, Baze picked up the empty pistol from the Deputy and removed the Sheriff’s unfired revolver and put both of the side arms into his own blue bag. He then went into the woods and headed towards Estill County. Shortly after 8 p.m., Baze surrendered without incident at the home of former Estill County Sheriff Monty Parks. Sgt. Miller of the Irvine police arrested Baze and read the Miranda rights to him. Baze, without being questioned, told one of the arresting officers, “You tell them that you got the right man. I’m the one that killed them son of a bitches.” Later, Baze confessed to Detective Patterson, Trooper Blevins and Richard Wilson of the Courier-Journal in a series of statements on January 30 and in February, 1992.
The trial lasted three weeks, from November 29, 1993 until December 20, 1993. Baze admitted that he had shot the officers but said it was done in self-defense and under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance. At the conclusion of the guilt phase, the jury deliberated three days. Following the guilt phase, the jury deliberated two days in the penalty phase to fix a sentence of death.
