By Steven White
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A man has been locked up the brutal rape of his six-month-old daughter. Mykill Puckett, 26, from Kentucky in the US, admitted to the carrying out the sickening crime in Webster County after his arrest in 2023, the local attorney general’s office confirmed last week. Speaking after Puckett was jailed for a total of 30 years this week, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said: “Every day, Kentucky’s law enforcement and prosecutors stare into the darkness and see some of the worst conduct imaginable.” Puckett will not be eligible for parole. He also faces a decade-long ban from seeing the child, prosecutors added. Prosecutor Zac Greenwell described the abuse as “simply horrific”. He added that “law enforcement and prosecutors responded with the full weight of Kentucky’s justice system.” After serving his time, Puckett will undergo five years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender for life. He was arrested along with his wife, Holly Jo Jones, on August 10, 2023. The investigation began three days earlier, on August 7, when staff at Baptist Health Madisonville reported injuries on the six-month-old that were consistent with abuse and assault. Police swiftly arrested the couple on charges of first-degree assault and criminal abuse of a child under 12. Two months later, Puckett was hit with three more felony charges: first-degree rape of a child under 12, incest with a child under 12, and wanton endangerment. He pleaded guilty to all charges earlier this month. Meanwhile, a grand jury in April 2024 declined to indict Jones. The baby girl was initially treated at a Madisonville hospital but was transferred to Norton’s Children’s Hospital in Louisville, some 150 miles away, due to the severity of her injuries. Kentucky’s child abuse rates rank as the fourth highest in the US, according to the US Department of Health & Human Services Children’s Bureau. The 2023 report revealed a rate of 14.2 victims per 1,000 children. This figure is almost double the national average of 7.4. Alarmingly, infants under one year old are most at risk, with Kentucky’s youngest victims suffering the worst.
