Source of the Gun?
Boney was working at Anderson Woods in Louisville at the time of the murders. One of his fellow employees was Ernie Nugent. The fact that Nugent had a gun in his possession at work on a daily basis was well known to at least one co-worker and that he also sold guns was well known to other workers.
In August, 2000 Nugent showed one fellow worker three guns: a 9 millimeter, a .38 revolver and a .380 semi-automatic. Those were in addition to a smaller caliber .25 semi-automatic which Nugent carried in his back pocket.
It was also in the late summer of 2000 that another worker, who was very familiar with guns, saw Boney with a semi-automatic handgun, either a .32 or .380 that he had wrapped in a towel or rag and had in his ever-present backpack. That was after Nugent had sold Boney a weapon and Nugent was complaining to other workers that Boney wouldn't pay him the money due him for the gun. That same worker cautioned Nugent, whom he knew to be a convicted felon, about carrying weapons. Nugent said that he didn't care and that he had carried a gun all of his life.
Boney was also warned about carrying a gun by that same co-worker who knew Boney to be a convicted felon. Boney wasn't concerned.
In March, 2005, a close and longtime friend of Nugent's was sitting and watching television with Nugent when it was announced that Boney had been arrested. It was at that time that Nugent admitted that he had sold a gun to Boney, but claimed the gun he sold to Boney was a .38 revolver. He didn't come forward, however, later admitting that he thought, "If I keep my mouth shut, maybe I won't get involved in it."
(Note: It was well-known, particularly during the extensive publicity of the first trial of Camm that the murder weapon was a .380 semi-automatic.)
Although the police knew of Ernie Nugent and his association with Boney and the allegation that he had sold Boney a gun, he wasn't interviewed by them for several weeks. Once the defense found out about him, however, Nugent was quickly found and interviewed in mid-March, 2005.
During that first interview, Nugent admitted that Boney had been at Anderson Woods for about two months when Boney asked him to get a gun (Boney began work in late June, 2000, putting the request around late August, 2000). Specifically, Boney asked him for a semi-automatic gun rather than a revolver because he liked them better. Nugent claimed that he instead sold Boney a.38 revolver that he had previously found in a spare tire in an old van that he had purchased.
Nugent's story about simply finding a gun in a tire in a van that he had purchased wasn't believable and he was again interviewed by the defense a short time later. At that time he admitted that he had lied and further that he had lied to the police, who had finally interviewed him, after his first interview with the defense.
Nugent said that he was concerned that the individual who actually sold him the gun, a convicted murderer, would kill him.
According to Nugent, the police weren't concerned about the gun that he sold to Boney because it wasn't the murder weapon. His representation is apparently true because the police, who still hadn't found the murder weapon, didn't press forward with Nugent. Most people would agree, regardless, that it wasn't particularly good police technique, i.e. accept the word of a convicted felon, who was a gun dealer, about the caliber of a weapon, who said he simply found the gun in a spare tire in a van that he bought and then sold it to Boney.
Nugent later claimed to the police that he got the gun from someone named Kenny McCool. McCool just happened to be a dead person who died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound suffered at the biker bar where Nugent hung out. Months later, however, Nugent finally claimed that the person who sold him the gun was Jimmy Proffitt, a twice convicted murderer.
Nugent was again interviewed by the defense on October 28, 2005 and he admitted that he had lied in his previous interviews. He finally admitted that he often carried a .25 handgun to work (later refuted by Nugent at trial) and that his supervisor at Anderson Woods warned him against having it at work. He finally admitted, after being confronted with the stories from numerous witnesses who saw him with guns, that he had in his possession the following weapons:
- .25 semi-automatic
- .357 revolver
- .38 revolver
- 9 millimeter semi-automatic
- .380 semi-automatic
Nugent then admitted that the reason he had told lies in the past about where he got the gun and his relationship with Boney was because he "was afraid I was gonna get in trouble." That's not the same thing as he saying that he was afraid that someone would kill him as he claimed in the past. "Gonna get in trouble" translates to being charged with a crime. A very bad crime would be providing the murder weapon used to kill a mother and her two children.
Nugent also claimed Pat Hardin, a friend of his, was present when he made the .38 transaction with Boney. The apparent purpose of that was to validate his assertion that the weapon was a .38. Hardin, when interviewed, however, said that he had been called by Nugent and that Nugent asked him to lie for him when the purported .38 transaction with Boney occurred. Hardin told him he absolutely wouldn't lie for him and told the defense investigator about Nugent soliciting him to lie. Pat Hardin apparently was never interviewed by the police.
Another individual was discovered by the defense who had engaged in a multiple gun transaction with Nugent over a year after the Camm murders. That individual had a 9 millimeter High Point which he traded to Nugent for two 9 millimeter Rugers and one .380 handgun which contained a fully loaded magazine. In addition to the High Point gun which he provided to Nugent, he also gave Nugent $250 in cash.
Nugent had previously insisted that he had only possessed a .380 semi-automatic and had never sold such a weapon. He was caught in yet another lie. The bottom line is that Nugent had been seen in possession of a .380 and had also sold a .380. His claim that he either didn't have or couldn't get a .380, a weapon that Boney professed to love, therefore didn't hold a lot of weight.
In fact, a close friend of Nugent's was also found by the defense and that person was told by Nugent that Nugent had, in fact, admitted selling a .380 to Boney. Nugent also told that person that he had asked Pat Hardin to lie for him and that he had previously been caught in several other lies. Nugent was confiding several things to the friend and he was dead on about being caught in lies and asking Hardin to lie for him. One would therefore believe that the friend was right when he said that Nugent admitted selling a .380 to Boney.
Regarding lying to the police and to the defense, this exchange occurred during Nugent's trial testimony in Camm's second trial:
Liell: ...on more than one occasion you have lied to the police about this case, haven't you?
Nugent: Yes.
Liell: And, in fact, on more than one occasion you have lied to Mr. Dunn...
Nugent: Yes.
Liell: ...about this case.
Nugent: But I always come back and told the truth about it later.
Liell: Uh-huh. Oh, okay. Which time?
Nugent: I don't know. I told the truth about it. I don't know which time.
Would Ernie Nugent lie about selling Boney a .380? Was he involved with Boney and Mala Singh? That biker bar in downtown New Albany where Nugent hung out and where McCool shot himself was once owned by the father of the convicted cocaine dealer who lived near the Camm house. That same residence, just north of the Camm residence, was the scene of parties attended by bar patrons. Nugent, who had lived in Georgetown as a child, would probably have known the area around the Camm residence.
Remember also that Boney had previously been turned down by his girlfriend's brother when asked if he would be the getaway driver for a robbery in Indiana. Was Boney still looking for someone to fill that role? Did Boney also ask Ernie Nugent? Most people would agree that a man, a self-admitted convicted felon, who sold guns, who told a close friend that he sold a .380 to Boney, who himself missed his evening shift at Anderson Woods the night of September 28, 2000 and who was worried that the gun he sold was possibly used to murder a family would have some serious concerns in any regard. Remember also that Boney claimed to another inmate that the man who was with Boney and his girlfriend during the commission of the Camm crime had provided the gun and was the lookout.
One should also ask why Boney didn't simply tell the investigators about Nugent if he was the one who sold him the gun. If Nugent wasn't involved other than selling the gun, why did Boney come up with the fictional Larry Gerkin as the source of the weapon? Was Boney hiding the identity of the person who was the lookout and therefore could totally incriminate him and Mala, and in the process, also exonerate Camm?
Was Victor Nugent simply a dupe used by the manipulative Boney? Charles Boney is a liar. That is a given. Did Boney also lie to Nugent? Did Boney tell Nugent that he was going to burglarize a barn or some similar story? Indeed, was Nugent expecting something totally different than what occurred?
Of possible interest was the fact that for several years, including the year 2000, Nugent lived in an apartment complex which adjoined the Community Park where Boney claimed that he was playing basketball with Camm. Was Boney again baiting the police when he used Community Park in his preposterous story about playing basketball there with Camm?
Victor Nugent was never charged for being a felon in possession of guns or as a felon selling guns and therefore, to his great relief, he didn't find himself "involved."
Jimmy Proffitt was also interviewed by the defense and he insisted that he never had a .380 handgun in his possession and he claimed that he never sold a .380 to Nugent. Proffitt readily acknowledged shooting and killing two people in two separate incidents with a .25 caliber handgun and that he had been imprisoned for each murder, telling the defense investigator that he had paid his debt to society for each of those crimes.
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