Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

BY ABIGAIL ROBERTS

Correspondent

STANFORD – The man who is still facing a murder charge for the 2016 death of a Lincoln County woman is back in the Boyle County Detention Center – on new charges.

John Gordon Stamper, Jr., 25, of 207 Bender Hollow Road in Stanford, was served a complaint warrant on April 16 by Kentucky State Police Trooper Adam Quiles on two charges of unlawful transaction with a minor (under 16 years of age), illegal sex act, and one charge of procure or promote use of a minor by electronic means.

According to the arrest warrant, Stamper allegedly used random phone numbers from a “text now app” on March 8-9 to send text messages to a female under 16 years of age, suggesting they “send each other pictures.”

According to the warrant, the minor continued to ask who the defendant was and sent a selfie of her face, while still trying to figure out who she was messaging.

Stamper allegedly said “I’ll tell you for a booty pic.”

When the minor did not send him what he asked for, Stamper said “Now it’s gonna cost ya an a** and a T** pic,” police say.

“The minor tells the defendant no,” the warrant states. “The above subject offers to send a picture of his private area. The victim sends a picture of her butt, thinking that the defendant was a guy from school that she had a crush on,” according to the warrant.

Stamper, according to the warrant, states that he “wants to see it facing the other way and continues to ask for boob pictures.”

On March 9, the victim texts the number and notices that the guy she thought it was isn’t answering his phone, but she received a message from the number again.

“The message states ‘that number looks familiar wonder what Kristy would say since you sent me nudes. I won’t send our messages to her if you send me more.’ ”

The juvenile then told her teacher and counselor at school, and her grandparents when she got home.

“The juvenile receives another message from the above subject at 5:14 p.m. stating, ‘If you don’t send me nudes within the next 30 minutes, I’m sending (names of the victim’s relatives) screenshots of our messages, and the nudes you already sent. If you do send nudes, I’ll leave you alone, and we go on like this didn’t happen. But do not think for a minute that I will not send it to them.’ ”

Stamper then sent a screenshot of the picture that the juvenile had sent him to two of the victim’s family members, police said.

“After further investigation, this trooper has found that the above subject (Stamper) was the one that was texting the female juvenile.”

Stamper was booked in the Boyle County Detention Center. His bond was set at $5,000 cash.

Still facing murder charge

Stamper is still facing a murder charge for the 2016 death of Desiree Sparks. He was indicted by a Boyle County Grand Jury in 2020. Sparks, 22 years old at the time, was last seen in Danville Sept. 27, 2016 and had been reported missing by local law enforcement when a group of people on all-terrain vehicles discovered her body a few days later at the end of West Skyline Drive in Lincoln County.

Sparks was found unclothed and deceased. With no wounds or traumatic injuries found on the body, Lincoln County Coroner Farris Marcum deemed the autopsy results “inconclusive” because he was unable to determine a cause of death.

According to the indictment, Sparks was reported missing the same day she was allegedly killed.

The indictment stated: “that on or about the 27th of September 2016 in Boyle County, Kentucky, the above named defendant, John Stamper Jr., committed the offense of murder by causing the death of Desiree Sparks.

Four years after the murder, Stamper was arrested on an indictment warrant and lodged in the Boyle County Detention Center.

Phone calls to Commonwealth Attorney Richie Bottoms were not returned as of press time Wednesday.

According to the Boyle County Detention Center website, Stamper’s bond for the murder charge was set at 10% of $100,000.

This story is ongoing and will be updated as soon as more information is made available.