Georgetown, Kentucky: Powerball Winner Arrested a Fifth Time Since $167.3M Jackpot

Scott County deputies found James Farthing asleep in the passenger seat of a running Ford Mustang outside a Georgetown Walmart early on Sunday, September 20, and charged him with alcohol intoxication in a public place, according to the arrest citation.

It was his fifth arrest since he won a $167.3 million Powerball jackpot in April 2025, and the sixth criminal case brought against him in that time.

What deputies say happened

A caller reported a white Mustang with temporary tags stopped in an intersection at about 2:57 a.m. Deputies found it parked by the Walmart charging stations with the engine running and Farthing alone inside. They knocked on the window for several minutes before he woke.

They reported the smell of alcohol and marijuana, bloodshot and watery eyes, slurred speech and trouble keeping his balance, and wrote that he was “manifestly under the influence.”

Farthing told them a woman had driven him there and left him. Deputies said they reviewed footage from a nearby camera that showed the Mustang pull in and park, with nobody getting out before they arrived. He was arrested at about 4:04 a.m. and taken to the Scott County Detention Center.

LEX18 reported that it contacted Farthing’s attorney, who had no comment on the citation.

The cases since the win, and how they ended

Counting the arrests is where most coverage of Farthing goes wrong, because three of the earlier matters are already over — and two of those did not end in a conviction.

Days after the win, he was arrested at a Florida resort, accused of punching a guest and kicking a sheriff’s deputy in the face. He pleaded guilty in late February to misdemeanour charges and was sentenced to time served after nine days in jail.

In February 2026 he was arrested in Scott County and charged with intimidating a participant in the legal process, after a woman called police saying she feared for her safety. That charge was reportedly amended down to disorderly conduct.

In March he was arrested in Lexington on second-degree burglary and marijuana charges, after a woman reported a break-in at her home and about $12,000 missing. The case collapsed in May. She testified under oath that she had found the money at a relative’s house weeks earlier, that Farthing — her ex-boyfriend — had been staying at the property and kept belongings there, and that she would not have called police had she known it was him. “You have recanted today under oath,” the judge told her. “I have no choice but to dismiss this matter.”

In late July he was charged with strangulation and assault, both flagged as domestic violence, over an alleged altercation at his Scott County home. He pleaded not guilty and was released on a $15,000 bond with a no-contact order and a monitoring device.

Separately, there is the hit-and-run. Police said that in November 2025 Farthing was driving a Corvette at between 103 and 117 mph in the seconds before rear-ending another car in Lexington, then left the scene on foot. He was facing those charges by early 2026 and was indicted in July on first-degree wanton endangerment and leaving the scene. That is the sixth case.

The jackpot, and what came before it

Farthing bought the winning $2 ticket in Georgetown for the April 26, 2025 drawing — the largest Powerball prize in Kentucky Lottery history. The $167.3 million is the annuity figure. The cash option was $77.3 million, and he said he would share it with his mother, Linda Grizzle, who he had bought the ticket for.

He was on parole when he won. The Smoking Gun, citing court records, reported that Kentucky had classified him a persistent felony offender with a record spanning 35 years and convictions in at least nine counties; LEX18 has reported roughly 30 years spent in custody. After the Florida arrest he waived his revocation hearings and asked to serve out the remainder, with a serve-out date of August 27, 2025.

Where it stands

The public intoxication case was still pending in Scott County District Court as of September 24. No outcome from his September 22 arraignment has been reported.

The strangulation case and the hit-and-run indictment are both unresolved. Farthing is presumed innocent on all of them.