Trouble on the Hill

Judge: Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. We are on the record in the case of People vs. Kenney...

John Kenney went on trial in August 2008 for the murder of the neighbors he had learned to so thoroughly despise. That he pulled the trigger, and took their lives, was not in question. But was it first degree, premeditated murder?  Or was it self-defense by a frightened, elderly man? The only surviving witness, of course, was Kenney himself. And he was about to tell the jury his version of the story...

The judge would not allow Kenney's face to be recorded on camera while he testified.  But he was recorded on audio tape.

John Kenney: I was in a high state of fear.  I was alone and vulnerable.

He was upstairs making dinner, he said, when he heard a rapping sound. Though he wasn't wearing his hearing aid, the sound seemed to come from this sliding glass door facing his driveway. Panic.  He went to his bedroom and grabbed his pistol. He opened his door, and saw Elizabeth Grimes on his deck. He said she swore at him; he told her to get off his property.

He tried to shoo her away. He took a step forward and she took a step back- back and forth all the way down his driveway. Then he saw Mel Grimes.

John Kenney: He was standing next to the barrier rock, in his business clothes, with a sledgehammer in his hand, in a frenzy, striking the -- my barrier rock.

And now, from the witness stand, Kenney made a stunning claim.  He was attacked.

John Kenney: I said, "Stop that.  Get off my property."  I think I only got halfway through it when Elizabeth Grimes came up behind me and slammed me in the back of the head. I seemed to recall that just after she did it, she started screaming, as if she were being attacked.

And then, the heart of Kenney's case: he accused Mel Grimes of charging him with that deadly sledgehammer raised like a battering ram.

John Kenney: It was at that moment I realized, they have entrapped me. When I drew my pistol, I did not intend to kill anybody.  That was my lifeline to get out of there. He slammed right into me.  The sledgehammer hit a grazing blow on my left upper arm.  I was grappling with him for a minute -- get away from me. At the same time, when he -- at the same moment, he pulled the sledgehammer back for a second strike, I cracked him across the front of the face with the, with the pistol.

Then he pulled the trigger.

John Kenney: Well, it knocked him off his pins to my left.  I fired once at him, once at her, paused for a moment, and once at him, and, then, there was a scary situation, and there's a longer pause between the third and fourth shot, and it hit her, again, apparently. Oh, my God.  It happened so fast.  This was a pandemonium.  I was acting half on instinct and self-preservation.  I wasn't thinking much of anything.  I wasn't thinking of anything, except to save my life.

Kenney admitted he fired at the grimes four times.  A fifth shot, he claimed, was a simple accident, and the bullet went into the ground.

John Kenney: I think -- my hands were shaking so badly that my thumb slipped off the hammer, and the gun fired, and that -- the receiver came back and ripped a big gash in my thumb.

Why did he fire that gun?   Military training, he said. 

John Kenney: First, I was being attacked by multiple -- two -- more than one person.  My training in the army had been, being attacked by multiple assailants, take them all down:  One, two, three, four.

And that, he said, was self-defense. After Kenney finished his story, the prosecutor asked him a question: Does he feel any remorse?

John Kenney: Since "remorse" -- I hate to sound like a school teacher, but as you know, "remorse" is sadness attributable to a sense of guilt ... I feel terrible about everything that happened, but I do not feel remorse, because I do not feel guilt.

Nor did Kenney feel any guilt or remorse right after the incident, claimed the prosecutor, at least he certainly didn't seem to when he placed his own 911 call.  Here, minutes after shooting his neighbors, said the prosecutor, Kenney expresses concern only for himself.

911: 911. What's your emergency?

John Kenney: Yes. Um, I'm at 80 Southbank Road.

911: Yes, sir.

John Kenney:  I have an emergency.

911: What type of emergency?

John Kenney:  I've been assaulted, again, by two people.

911: You've been assaulted?

John Kenney:  Yes, I have and battered.

911: Are you injured?

John Kenney:  Yes.

911: Do you need an ambulance?

John Kenney:  No.

911: OK.  Who assaulted you?

John Kenney:  Mel Grimes, Jr.

911: And how do you know these people, sir?

John Kenney:  They're my next door neighbors.

911: OK.  And what did they do to you?

John Kenney:  Well, they rushed at me and tried to assault me.

911: For what?  What's going on?

John Kenney:  Um, that's as much as I--I think I should say right now.

911: No.  You need to give me as much information as possible so I can let the officers know that are responding, sir.

John Kenney:  Uh--

911: Why did your neighbors do this?

John Kenney:  Oh, my God, sir, I really can't tell.  I hope you'll come out here please.

911: Sir, I need some information. Hello?

And at his trial he was consistent: it wasn't he who started it, said Kenney; it wasn't his fault. And if that were the only story the jury heard. But it wasn't. After all, when Elizabeth Grimes called 911 from her driveway that fateful afternoon, the whole incident, the climax of that long war, was recorded through her telephone. And now the entire tape was played in open court. Every disturbing moment.

Elizabeth Grimes: He's got a gun.

John Kenney:  Yeah, help.

Both were shot twice. A bullet hit Elizabeth in the back. So the jury heard the shots, heard them die.  Heard their last words to each other: “I love you.” And they heard this last fifth shot, almost 15 seconds after the fourth.

Mel Grimes: I love you.

911: Hello? Hello?

What was that?  Kenney said the gun slipped. Prosecutor Berkley Brannon countered that it was in fact proof that this was not a question of self-defense.

Berkley Brannon: The defendant shot Elizabeth Grimes while she was down on the ground, helpless. It was a coup de gras shot.

Or was it, as defense attorney Daniel Olmos told the jury, something else entirely?

Daniel Olmos: DO NOT let the prosecution convince you that this case is about a patch of dirt. This case is about a 72-year-old man who feared for his life.

Berkley Brannon: He thinks it's a struggle between good and evil. He wanted to be in control.

If Kenney's attitude were on trial, it seemed, he would surely lose.  But the law doesn't measure attitude.  It measures justice.

MORE FROM PEOPLE

People Section Front

Sad development: The last Kodachrome film lab Mom of boy set afire: ‘His courage is incredible’ Chef Paula Deen hit in face by charity ham   A one room schoolhouse   Boot camp for butlers   One teacher’s life lessons for his students   Father of missing man speaks out   Jill Biden thanks military families   Suleman: ‘Octomom’ name is hilarious   Mumbai survivor Baby Moshe turns 3 People Section Front   Add People headlines to your news reader: