An argument over an NFL game turned deadly just days before Christmas, leaving a woman murdered, her husband dead by suicide, and her 13-year-old daughter critically wounded.
The violence unfolded Monday night in Lakeland, Florida, after a dispute between Jason Kenney, 47, and his wife, Crystal Kenney, over watching the end of a Monday Night Football game, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference Tuesday.
According to investigators, Kenney had been drinking throughout the night and was initially inside a shed on the property before going into the home to watch the football game in the living room, where his wife was. When Crystal said she did not want to watch football, the argument intensified.
At one point, Crystal yelled for her 12-year-old son to call 911. He ran to a neighbor’s house as gunshots rang out. Deputies arrived minutes later to find Crystal Kenney dead in the living room with a gunshot wound to the head.
They also found her 13-year-old daughter suffering from two gunshot wounds – one to the shoulder and one to the face. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she remains in critical but stable condition.
"She said, 'I begged him, don't shoot me, don't shoot me, don't shoot me, and he shot me anyway,'" Judd said.
“He just absolutely destroyed a family,” the sheriff added. “Literally. Not to mention the mental health of two children without their mother and a father three days before Christmas.”
The couple’s one-year-old baby girl was also inside the home at the time. She was found asleep in her crib and was unharmed.
After shooting his wife and stepdaughter, investigators say Kenney fled the scene in his truck. He called his sister, who lives in upstate New York, and told her he had done something “really bad” and was not going to jail.
Deputies later located Kenney hiding in a shed at his late father’s home in Lake Wales. When deputies ordered him to come outside, they heard a single gunshot and Kenney was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
“The entire family was destroyed,” Judd said. “And I must tell you, our homicide detectives are distraught. When they go in there, there is a beautiful Christmas tree with lots of Christmas presents under the tree just like the nuclear family should be.”
This is not the first time Kenney had been abusive, according to neighbors, though the sheriff’s office said there were no prior calls for service at the home. Kenney had no criminal history.
Judd, however, pointed out a handwritten note that was found inside the home that Crystal Kenney had written at some point in the past.
“We found a note that at some time in the past Crystal wrote, and it was open, where she told Jason, you know, ‘You’re drinking, you’re using cocaine again, this is not the way the family should be. You need God,’” Judd said.
The surviving children, two of whom were from Crystal’s from a previous relationship, and the couple’s baby, are now in the care of their grandparents.
”This is horrific, but destroying a family and the mental health of these children so close to Christmas is especially horrific,” Judd said. “We will do everything we can to help this family get through this difficult time.”
