A Calloway County grand jury met Friday and indicted Russell Cleaver on charges of murder, third-degree assault and first-degree criminal mischief in two separate but related cases. Days earlier, the victim’s estate filed a civil action seeking to prevent the sale or transfer of the Sunset Drive property where the Aug. 17 shooting occurred.
Cleaver was originally charged with attempted murder after police said he shot his estranged wife, Brittany Cleaver, in the chest Aug. 17 at a Sunset Drive residence. He waived a preliminary hearing Aug. 26, sending the case to a Calloway County grand jury.
Brittany Cleaver died Sept. 4 at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. The grand jury returned a new indictment Friday charging Russell Cleaver with murder, alleging he caused her death when he shot her Aug. 17.
A second indictment stemmed from Cleaver’s alleged conduct after he was detained and taken to the Murray Police Department for questioning. The grand jury charged him with two counts of third-degree assault of a police officer and one count of first-degree criminal mischief after police said he damaged department property and twice made physical contact with an officer.
Cleaver already faced charges in a separate circuit court case involving Brittany Cleaver before the shooting. That case arose from an alleged May 26 incident in which police said Cleaver threatened to kill her. He was charged with third-degree terroristic threatening, menacing and retaliation against a participant in the legal process, and a no-contact provision involving Brittany Cleaver was among the conditions of his bond.
As the criminal cases moved forward, a separate dispute emerged over Brittany Cleaver’s interest in the Sunset Drive property where the shooting occurred.
The administrator of Brittany Cleaver’s estate filed a civil case Wednesday against Russell Cleaver and his father, Max Cleaver, asking the court to preserve the property while questions over ownership remained unresolved.
Court records show Brittany, Russell and Max Cleaver held the property at 1627 Sunset Drive as joint tenants with right of survivorship. In the complaint, the estate argued that the murder case could affect whether Russell Cleaver ultimately retained any survivorship interest in the property following Brittany’s death.
Kentucky law generally prevents a person convicted of causing another person’s death from benefiting from the victim’s property, including through a survivorship interest. The complaint noted, however, that no qualifying conviction had been entered and asked the court only to preserve the property while the criminal and civil cases remained pending.
In an affidavit filed with the complaint, estate administrator Tamara Petty said she learned through communications from Russell Cleaver’s family that the property was being cleaned out in preparation for sale. Petty said she feared the estate could lose its ability to recover Brittany Cleaver’s interest if the property were sold or otherwise transferred before the dispute was resolved.
Calloway Circuit Judge Andrea Moore granted a temporary restraining order Thursday preventing Russell Cleaver – and anyone acting with him who received notice of the order – from selling, transferring, mortgaging, refinancing or otherwise encumbering the property. The restraining order is scheduled to expire Oct. 2 unless it is extended or replaced by a temporary injunction.
Cleaver is scheduled for arraignment in Calloway Circuit Court on the new charges at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 2. A hearing on the estate’s request for a temporary injunction is scheduled for 2 p.m. that day.
Individuals charged with crimes are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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