Opinion ID: 844257
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Murder of Brenda Gail Kenny

Text: On Thursday, September 10, 1992, Brenda Kenny felt ill. So, instead of going to work at the library, she spent the day visiting her mother. At 10:00 p.m., Kenny drove to her home in Riverside's Canyon Creek apartment complex. The staircase to Kenny's apartment passed the bedroom window of Joseph Masewicz's apartment, which was directly below hers. That evening, after 10:00 p.m., Masewicz heard two people walking up the stairs. During the night he was awakened by a bang, as if someone had fallen. He then heard a cry. His alarm clock read 4:10 a.m. Because Masewicz knew that Kenny was prone to seizures, he got up to check on her. However, when he heard footsteps in her apartment, he concluded nothing was amiss and did not pursue the matter. [12] Saturday evening Kenny's parents received a phone call from Ruth Hunter. Hunter, a library colleague, was concerned that Kenny had not been at work on Friday and had not called in ill. Mr. and Mrs. Kenny went to her apartment immediately. After knocking and receiving no response, they let themselves into the locked apartment with a key. The first thing they noticed was the smell of decomposition. Next they noticed wind billowing the curtain through an unlocked sliding glass door leading to the balcony. They found their daughter lying on the floor of her bedroom between the bed and the dressing table. A blanket covered her face. Although Kenny was a very neat housekeeper, dresser drawers were open, clothes spilled out, and shoes were scattered across the floor. Christine Keers, a police homicide detective, described the crime scene. A knife found under Ms. Kenny's elbow was similar to knives in her kitchen. The cord to an electric iron had been cut off and placed on the nightstand next to the bed. Sheets stripped from the bed were in a hamper. A leaflet for the New Wine Fellowship Church in nearby Moreno Valley was found by the front door. Cause of death was multiple sharp-force injuries. Kenny had been stabbed five times in the neck, once in the chest, and once in the abdomen. Any one of four stab wounds would have been fatal. The knife found under Kenny's elbow could have inflicted them. There were also 16 cuts [13] on her hands, likely inflicted as she tried to defend herself. There was a semen stain on the crotch of Kenny's pants. Defendant's responsibility for the murder was established by, among other things, incriminating statements he made to coworkers before his arrest, incriminating statements he made to investigators, and physical evidence. Defendant worked at Canyon Springs Cinema in Moreno Valley, along with his girlfriend Stephanie Compton, Terry De la Torre, Ricardo Decker, Kenya Starr, Matthew Shreiner, Yolanda Narez, and Matthew Texera. According to Decker, Compton related a conversation she had with defendant as they drove past Kenny's apartment complex. Defendant said he dreamt he saw the librarian being murdered. As Compton told this to Decker, defendant was present and Compton asked him for confirmation. Dave, didn't you have a dream about that librarian being murdered over in the apartments by Canyon Crest? Defendant nodded in the affirmative. At trial, Compton denied that she told Decker about the dream. She did testify that defendant told her of a recurrent dream in which he looked through a window and saw someone being stabbed. Defendant later admitted to Detective Keers that he dreamt of seeing a man stabbing a woman lying on a bed. Kenya Starr testified that while he and defendant were cleaning the theater, defendant said: I shouldn't have done it, she was nice, I should not have killed her. Starr asked defendant what he was talking about. Defendant repeated that she was nice and he should not have killed her. Starr said he did not believe defendant had killed anyone. Defendant responded that he could prove it, and a couple of days later he showed Starr a newspaper clipping of the Kenny murder. Matthew Texera testified that defendant had assaulted him with a knife about a month before defendant was arrested for Kenny's murder. While Texera stood at the theater snack bar, defendant approached him from behind. Texera turned to see defendant punching him. When Texera tried to parry a blow, defendant slashed Texera's hand with a knife he carried in his other hand. On another occasion, defendant told Mr. Decker that he had had to stab several people in the past. Defendant lived in a house in Moreno Valley with four other young men. In the bedroom defendant shared with one of them, officers found three newspaper clippings concerning the Kenny murder. [14] The leaflet for the New Wine Fellowship Church Detective Keers found by Ms. Kenny's front door also linked defendant to her murder. Defendant was a member of the church and, like other congregants, passed out New Wine leaflets to prospective members. A month or two before the Kenny murder, defendant rang the doorbell of Darryl Luntao, who lived in a downstairs apartment directly across from Ms. Kenny. Defendant handed Luntao a New Wine leaflet and spoke to him for several minutes. Finally, defendant was linked to the murder by serological testing of the semen stain found on the pants Kenny was wearing at the time of her death. Defendant, like 8 percent of the general population, shared the genetic profile revealed by that stain.