In April 1987, Virgil was arrested for the gruesome murder of a Christian minister and Veterans Administration nurse, Retha Welch, who was 54. She was raped, stabbed repeatedly and bludgeoned with a vase. Her body was found in a blood-filled bathtub in her Newport home after she failed to show up for work.
Virgil, who'd lived in Cincinnati, acknowledged that he and an on-and-off relationship with Welch but insisted he did not kill her. He refused to plead to the killing, Smith said in court records, because he wanted his day in court to prove he was innocent....
[the Kentucky Innocence Project lawyer states]
"Completed DNA testing of recently discovered hairs in this case conclusively proves that the Movant (Virgil) did not, in fact, have sex with or rape the victim, Retha Welch, at the time of her murder, nor was his hair on her person or clothing. This most recent testing further supports the previous DNA testing done in the case and is more evidence that William Virgil is an innocent man."