Trouble on the Hill

John Kenney came back from Europe in January 2007.  It was time to launch his plan to end the war with his neighbors. Once home, Kenney went to this nursery and bought a barrier rock -- a one-ton boulder. He e-mailed his attorney with orders to call the sheriff for a civil stand-by. His rock was delivered at 3 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2007.

His security consultant and attorney were on hand when it arrived in case things became volatile.  The promised sheriff's deputy didn't show. But nothing happened.  Mel and Elizabeth Grimes were not home yet.

Tom Ellington-Wills: He was coming from work from Salinas out where the courthouse is.  And she was on the peninsula.

Up on the hill, the lawyer and the consultant gave Kenney strict orders: Stay in the house, call 911 at any sign of trouble.  And then they left. Kenney's family said he felt abandoned, dismayed. He was 72.  Frightened.  Alone. The Grimes were on their way.

Tom Ellington-Wills: They met for a-- a light dinner, and then they drove home and--

Keith Morrison: Texting each other along the way--

Tom Ellington-Wills: Yeah, exactly.  Yeah, the "I love you and can't wait to see-- you know, can't wait to get home." 

At 5:30, the Grimes, in their separate cars, arrived at the top of the hill. Mel first. He saw the boulder. Ran to his tool shed.  Got a shovel and sledgehammer. Elizabeth arrived.  Saw Mel with his heart condition swinging the sledgehammer.  She grabbed the cordless house phone.

911 phone call:

911 Dispatcher:  911.

Elizabeth Grimes: Yeah, we have an emergency at 82 Hitchcock Canyon Road in Carmel Valley.

911 Dispatcher: What's the problem?

Elizabeth Grimes: Um, our neighbor has blocked our driveway.  My husband, who doesn't have a good heart, is out there trying to break down with a sledgehammer.

911 Dispatcher: OK.  This is 82 Hitchcock Road?

Elizabeth Grimes: Yes.  It's Southbank--

911 Dispatcher: And he's blocked--

Elizabeth Grimes: In Carmel Valley.

911 Dispatcher: He has blocked the driveway with what?

Elizabeth Grimes: With a big, huge boulder so that we can't get our cars out.  We share a mutual driveway.

911 Dispatcher: Where is the neighbor at?

Elizabeth Grimes: He's in his house.  Please, please, hurry.

911 Dispatcher: How old is your husband?

Elizabeth Grimes: My husband is 58.  He can't do this.  He was just at the hospital today.  This guy is crazy.  I have to hang-up to help him.

Then, striking sounds are heard on the 911 call. Grimes is hitting the boulder. His wife tells him, “Stop.”

Elizabeth Grimes:  Mel, don't touch it.  Let the police come.

911 Dispatcher: Does your--

Elizabeth Grimes:  Don't you do that, Mel.

Mel Grimes: Shut up.

Elizabeth Grimes: Don't, Mel.

911 Dispatcher: What is he doing?

Elizabeth Grimes: What is that going to do?

Mel Grimes: Nothing.

Then they argue about whether Elizabeth should go up to Kenney's house.

Elizabeth Grimes:  All right, Mel, stop it or I'll go there.

Mel Grimes: No, you're not.

Elizabeth Grimes: I'm going to his house.

Mel Grimes: No, you're not.

Elizabeth Grimes: Uh, I don't care, Mel.

911: Hello?

Elizabeth Grimes: Leave it alone. Leave it alone.

911: Can I speak to your husband?

Elizabeth Grimes:  No.  My husband is, like, so pissed off.

911: Where is he at right now?

Elizabeth Grimes: He's got a sledgehammer and he's trying to break this boulder down.

911: So, he's back in the driveway hitting the boulder?

Elizabeth Grimes: Yes.

911: OK. And the other male is in the--

Elizabeth Grimes: In the house.

But not for long.  Kenney emerges.  Walks down his driveway, toward the Grimes - and the boulder. Elizabeth confronts him.

Elizabeth Grimes: Here he is now. Get out of our lives.

John Kenney: Get off my property.

Elizabeth Grimes: Don't tell me to get off your property.

John Kenney: I will tell you to get off it.

Elizabeth Grimes: You're on my property every time you back up.

John Kenney: Get off this property.

Elizabeth Grimes: Please send the Sheriff.  Hurry.

911: OK.

Elizabeth Grimes: Thank you.

911: There's another dispatcher--

Elizabeth Grimes: Thank you.

911: Starting them.

Elizabeth Grimes: Thank you.  The Sheriff is coming.

John Kenney:  Don't walk over my property.

Elizabeth Grimes: Oh, shut-up, you fat a------. Mel, a policeman is coming.

Mel Grimes: Good.

John Kenney:  Leave that alone.

Elizabeth Grimes:  Please send someone.

And then the horror, and a warning: What you're about to hear is disturbing.

Elizabeth Grimes: Get off. He's got a gun.

John Kenney: Yeah, help.

(Gunshot heard)

Elizabeth Grimes: Mel, I love you.

Mel Grimes: I love you.

911:  Hello?  Hello?

Down the hill, Kim Williams heard the gunshots, remembered Kenney's feud and headed up the canyon road.

Kim Williams: It was like, "This can't be happening."  But, you know, the reality was Mel was dead, and he was lying on the ground there.  And Elizabeth was near death.

Elizabeth's friend, Elyse Battey, was on her way home, heard the sirens, saw the helicopter arrive.

Elyse Battey: I had no idea that the person we watched from this location being unloaded from the ambulance and put into a helicopter was in fact my best friend. I watched and witnessed this event. Whoever it was to me at that point, it was horribly horrific and it really shattered the safety we felt in Carmel Valley.

Elizabeth Grimes died in route to a trauma center. Her son, Tom, answered a knock at the door.  And tried to listen to what the policeman said.

Video   Prosecutor: Kenney 'a prideful man' Prosecutor Berkley Brannon describes John Kenney, and what aspects of his personality led to the aggression he exhibited toward the Grimes. Dateline NBC

Tom Ellington-Wills: "I really have some bad news for you."  And-- I'm like, "What's goin' on?"  And he's "Oh, your dad's dead." And then he said, "And your mom is dead, too." And-- I just-- I mean I-- I fell to the ground.  I just-- you know I'm thinking, "Car accident."  I'm thinking, you know, "How could they both go? You know, they just got back from Hawaii. It must be a car accident." And as soon as-- I'll never forget it-- as soon as the sheriff told my wife, or told us, that my mom was dead too, that she looked at me and said, "Oh my God, the neighbor."

Nine time zones away in Nancy, France, John Kenney's wife, a gynecologist was in the midst of a consultation when she got a telephone call. Her John Kenney involved in a murder? Incomprehensible. She told her daughters the news when she got home.

Segolene Kenney: And I just said, "It can't be.  This is terrible.  It-- it can't be."

Keith Morrison: How do you process a thing like that?

Segolene Kenney: I immediately said to myself that my dad had-- as an honest man, has felt in danger.  And that he had to do it for him to stay alive.

He was arrested, of course.  Right outside his house.

Kim Williams: I saw Jack being escorted from his driveway. His head was hung.  He was slumped over.  He just looked like the world had come to an end.

John Kenney, the brilliant petroleum engineer, the law and order man, was charged with first degree murder.  There would be a trial, and he would take the witness stand to  explain why he killed his neighbors.

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