Man who helped bury body released from prison

Jeffrey Mundt, convicted last year of helping his lover bury a body in his Old Louisville basement, was released from prison Friday to a halfway house.

Mundt's boyfriend, Joseph Banis, is serving a life sentence for killing James Carroll after a drug-fueled sex party at Mundt's home in late 2009.

Mundt testified that Banis slit Carroll's throat and shot him, then threatened to kill Mundt if he didn't help clean up. Prosecutors called them a "twisted couple" who both took part in the killing, then smashed Carroll's corpse with a sledgehammer so it would fit into a 50-gallon plastic container.

They dug a hole in the basement and buried the tub in a shallow grave, where it remained for more than six months.

Mundt called police in June 2010 pleading for help because, he said, Banis was threatening to kill him. When police arrived, Banis directed them to the body in the basement.

Both men were tried for his murder. Banis was convicted and escaped the possibility of a death sentence by agreeing to testify against Mundt.

Mundt was acquitted of the murder last May. The jury convicted him of facilitation to robbery and tampering with physical evidence and recommended he spend eight years in prison.

He had already been in jail several years awaiting trial, and was immediately eligible for parole.

Mundt will be on supervised probation, said Lisa Lamb, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

Banis remains at the Little Sandy Correction Complex, a medium-security prison in Elliott County in Eastern Kentucky, according to DOC records.

Reporter Claire Galofaro can be reached at (502) 582-7086. Follow her on Twitter at @clairegalofaro.