Wayne M. Haggard v. Commonwealth of Kentucky

Kentucky Supreme Court·Decided February 19, 2026·No. 2025-SC-0027·Unpublished

Opinion

IMPORTANT NOTICE

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED OPINION

THIS OPINION IS DESIGNATED “NOT TO BE PUBLISHED.” PURSUANT TO THE RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE PROMULGATED BY THE SUPREME COURT, RAP 40(D), THIS OPINION IS NOT TO BE PUBLISHED AND SHALL NOT BE CITED OR USED AS BINDING PRECEDENT IN ANY OTHER CASE IN ANY COURT OF THIS STATE; HOWEVER, UNPUBLISHED KENTUCKY APPELLATE DECISIONS, RENDERED AFTER JANUARY 1, 2003, MAY BE CITED FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE COURT IF THERE IS NO PUBLISHED OPINION THAT WOULD ADEQUATELY ADDRESS THE ISSUE BEFORE THE COURT. OPINIONS CITED FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE COURT SHALL BE SET OUT AS AN UNPUBLISHED DECISION IN THE FILED DOCUMENT AND A COPY OF THE ENTIRE DECISION SHALL BE TENDERED ALONG WITH THE DOCUMENT TO THE COURT AND ALL PARTIES TO THE ACTION.

RENDERED: FEBRUARY 19, 2026 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

Supreme Court of Kentucky 2025-SC-0027-MR

WAYNE M. HAGGARD APPELLANT

ON APPEAL FROM BOONE CIRCUIT COURT V. HONORABLE RICHARD A. BRUEGGEMANN, JUDGE NO. 23-CR-00403

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY APPELLEE

MEMORANDUM OPINION OF THE COURT AFFIRMING

Following a four-day trial, a Boone Circuit Court jury convicted Appellant, Wayne Haggard (“Haggard”), of Murder. He was sentenced in accordance with the jury’s recommendation to twenty-eight (28) years of incarceration. Haggard now appeals as a matter of right. See KY. CONST. § 110(2)(b). Having reviewed the record, the arguments of the parties, and the applicable law, we affirm the Boone Circuit Court.

BACKGROUND

On April 22, 2023, Haggard was spending time with his family at his mother’s home in Florence, Kentucky, when he, his brother, Jacob Haggard (“Jacob”), his brother, Troy Haggard (“Troy”), and a neighbor, Deanna Shamblin (“Shamblin”), noticed a car they did not recognize parked facing the wrong direction on the street across from Haggard’s mother’s home. The vehicle sat

idle for approximately two to three hours, leaving the area at one point but then returning.

Around 9:00 p.m., Jacob and Haggard approached the vehicle because the car looked “out of place,” and told the driver, who was later identified as Dan Lakiko (“Lakiko”), that he needed to leave, and that “this ain’t your neighborhood.” At trial, Haggard cited concerns that Lakiko was canvasing the neighborhood for potential burglaries, provoking his initial interaction with Lakiko. While what exactly took place during the exchange was disputed at trial, all parties agree that some sort of confrontation took place which resulted in Lakiko, Haggard, and Jacob engaging in a physical altercation resulting in minor injuries to all three. Following this altercation, Lakiko returned to his vehicle, where Haggard shot him five times, including at least one time through the car door. When police arrived, Haggard proclaimed that he had “overreacted.” Over the course of the evening, Haggard had consumed approximately six to ten beers. Drug testing of his body revealed that Lakiko was under the influence of marijuana when he passed away. Lakiko lived four houses down from the scene of the shooting.

At trial, Haggard claimed he acted in self-defense and defense of others.

He testified that when he and Jacob approached the vehicle to ask Lakiko what he was doing there, Lakiko unpredictably and inexplicably lunged out of his vehicle and wrestled around with Jacob. Haggard had a beer in his hand, indicating that he had not intended to engage in any scuffle or need to use his hands for any reason. Nevertheless, Haggard and Troy intervened, with the

three brothers and Shamblin encouraging Lakiko to get in his car and leave, and Lakiko repeatedly making threats to the effect of, “when I get in my car, I’m gonna kill one of you m*****f*****s” and “I’ll shoot every one of you m*****f******s.” Lakiko returned to his vehicle, where, with his right foot in the vehicle and his left foot out of the vehicle, he began rummaging around and reaching towards his floorboards. Haggard then observed Lakiko bend over under the steering wheel and then appear to pull up, perhaps with something in his right hand. Haggard testified that he feared Lakiko was pulling out a gun and was going to fire upon him, Jacob, Shamblin, or his children, whom he could hear talking somewhere in the distance. This is when Haggard unholstered his own weapon and shot Lakiko. At trial, Troy, Haggard, and Shamblin each testified that they believed that Lakiko had a gun when he was reaching up from the vehicle. No gun was found in or around Lakiko’s vehicle. The only gun found at the scene was the one used by Haggard to kill Lakiko.

The Commonwealth had a different theory of the case. They suggested that Lakiko was dragged out of the car by the intoxicated Haggard brothers, who felt that Lakiko looked like he did not belong there. The Commonwealth suggested that Haggard’s statements that Lakiko lunged out of the car unprovoked were unlikely given that Haggard and Jacob were under the influence of alcohol, a substance with a greater reputation for making people aggressive than marijuana. Either way, the Commonwealth found it unlikely that, had Lakiko been threatening to kill the Haggards, the Haggards would have encouraged Lakiko to return to his vehicle, where he may have had access

to weapons. The Haggard brothers were each significantly larger in size than Lakiko, implying that even if Lakiko had been the initial aggressor in the physical altercation, the Haggard brothers could have easily managed the threat without resort to deadly force. Instead of retrieving a weapon from his car, it is possible that Lakiko was actually hiding behind his car door for safety from the Haggards. The Commonwealth pointed out that Haggard had completed a carrying concealed deadly weapons course in which he learned that a defense to a charge of murder is to claim self-defense and suggested that all witnesses who testified in alignment with Haggard’s theory were also socially aligned with Haggard and had a motive to fabricate testimony to keep Haggard from going to prison.

Prior to trial, Haggard filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that he was acting in self-defense by shooting Lakiko. In denying Haggard’s motion, the trial court found that the Commonwealth had sufficient evidence to support probable cause that Haggard was not engaged in self-defense. At trial, defense counsel moved for a directed verdict, reasserting Haggard’s claim of self- defense but conceding that the defense’s theory would lead to the likelihood of a conviction of second-degree manslaughter or reckless homicide rather than murder. The trial court denied this motion.

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Wayne M. Haggard v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, (Ky. 2026).

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