Accused Franklin Co. murderer enters “not guilty” plea

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – We’re learning more about the man accused of murdering a woman in Frankfort, including a past job you might find interesting.

In court Monday, the judge entered a “not-guilty” plea on behalf of Derek Garten, 38. He’s facing multiple felony charges including murder and tampering with physical evidence.
Garten is accused of shooting and killing Margaret Smith, 39, at her home on Meadow Glen Drive.

After the murder last Tuesday, Garten was on the run for three days. Police caught up with Garten at Bryan Station Inn, where he barricaded himself inside a room.
Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton says Captain Chris Quire, with the Frankfort Police Department, knows Garten. Melton says the two went to high school together. According to Melton, Garten called Quire from that hotel room during the standoff, and Quire was asked to come to Lexington to help get Garten out peacefully.

It was after about six hours of negotiating that Garten threw his weapons out of the room’s window and surrendered.
It’s for that case that he faces the murder and tampering charges, but in court, we learned Garten is also facing a separate terroristic threatening charge. That’s because, according to court documents, he emailed a woman telling her to find a way to hear an attached audio message, or he would kill her. No information was released as to what that audio message was about. Garten pleaded “not guilty” to that charge.

Garten is being held in the Shelby County Detention Center as a way to avoid conflict of interest. That potential conflict, according to Sheriff Melton, is that he says, years ago, Garten served as a deputy jailer in Franklin county.

Garten is held on a $500 thousand full cash bond and will be back in court in one week.