Inset: Katelynn Kearney (Lebanon County District Attorney”s Office). Background: The apartment complex where Kearney allegedly killed her boyfriend in Lebanon, Pa. (Google Maps).
A Pennsylvania woman is behind bars over a series of allegations related to the stabbing death of her boyfriend, authorities say.
On Monday, Katelynn Kearney, 32, and her mother Joanne Kearney, 61, were charged with one count each of tampering with evidence, according to the Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office.
Those initial charges came roughly within a day of law enforcement discovering the deceased body of Dontay Maurice Hunter, 45.
The victim was found late Sunday morning with a significant amount of blood on his right torso – lying in his bed at the apartment he once shared with the younger Kearney on Chestnut Street in Lebanon City.
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Katelynn Kearney, for her part, dialed 911 on the day in question, saying she found her boyfriend in bed and not breathing in the blood-soaked apartment, according to a press release issued by the prosecutor’s office.
That call, however, soon became suspect.
“Her tone of voice remained flat, and she displayed no emotion,” Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf wrote in the press release. “At times her speech turned into incoherent mumbling. The Defendant never admitted she stabbed the victim or took his life.”
The first suite of charges seemed to be something of a prelude.
In surveillance footage from Oct. 4, Hunter and his girlfriend are seen entering their apartment together at around 8 p.m., authorities allege in court documents related to the evidence tampering charges and obtained by Lancaster-based NBC affiliate WGAL. Shortly thereafter, a female voice is heard shouting: “Get off of me.”
Later, Katelynn Kearney is seen leaving Hunter’s apartment and going to her mother’s apartment next door, police claim. Then, the mother follows the daughter, stands in the doorway and allegedly says: “He’s dead.” The footage then shows the pair entering Hunter’s unit together, police said. At around 9:40 p.m., Katelynn Kearney is seen leaving her apartment carrying a white plastic bag before returning without the bag some 10 minutes later, according to law enforcement.
The girlfriend called 911 at around 9:38 a.m. the next morning.
Responding officers indeed found blood all over the place — on the doorknobs to the apartment and in the hallway between the two residences, according to those first-filed court documents.
Investigators would quickly discover the discarded bag and bloody knife in a nearby dumpster, along with blood-covered clothes Katelynn Kearney had been wearing the night of the stabbing, police say.
Now, after a few days of an ongoing homicide investigation, the ante has been substantially upped against the younger woman.
Joanne Kearney (Lebanon County District Attorney’s Office).
Katelynn Kearney made several statements to police denying responsibility for the crime, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“She told police on the night of the murder she and the victim only argued,” the press release reads. “She reiterated that she went to her mother’s apartment and found the victim dead on his bed the following morning.”
The first version of the story quickly fell apart, Hess Graf says.
“In her first statement to police, the Defendant lied,” the press release continues. “She told police she found the victim in his apartment, he was not breathing, and she called 911. The Defendant’s mother reiterated the Defendant’s lies in her initial statement to police.”
At one point, Katelynn Kearney even blamed another man who lives at the same apartment complex, with whom she “had romantic relations,” for Hunter’s killing, Hess Graf says.
The alleged lies continued throughout subsequent interviews, authorities say, even in the face of being shown the surveillance footage. Then, after over an hour of being questioned at the police station, the alleged killer is believed to have changed her tune.
Eventually, Katelynn Kearney admitted to swiping Hunter twice with a knife during an argument, police and prosecutors say.
“After all of her lies to police, the Defendant admitted she stabbed the victim but then attempted to claim self-defense,” the press release goes on. “A search of the Defendant’s person revealed no injuries. The Defendant did not request medical care.”
Then the story allegedly changed again.
After being read her Miranda rights and brought back to the cleaned-up apartment to perform a reenactment of the slaying, Katelynn Kearney allegedly claimed she “found” Hunter stabbed in the apartment, authorities say.
“Police reminded the Defendant she already confessed and asked her to reenact the killing,” the press release continues.
During the subsequent demonstration, the alleged killer said Hunter “never held or showed her a weapon” but did grab for her arms while she was holding the knife.
“She continued to make stabbing motions with the knife,” the write-up of the reenactment session reads. “The victim fell onto his bed and told the Defendant she stabbed him. The Defendant saw the victim start to bleed. At no point did the Defendant render aid or phone 911 for help. The Defendant believed she stabbed the victim twice. She further stated she accidentally stabbed the victim due to her tremors.”
Katelynn Kearney also told investigators that her dating history with Hunter included instances of “physical abuse,” according to the prosecutor’s office. A search of law enforcement records, however, only turned up a lone battery conviction against the defendant herself in Florida from 2013.
The prosecutor’s office offered an ironic coda to its estimation of the fatal stabbing in the lengthy press release.
“October of every year is Domestic Violence Awareness Month,” the press release concludes. “On the date of the murder, local citizens gathered at an event in support of Lebanon County’s Domestic Violence Intervention. The message conveyed domestic violence could happen at any time and to anyone. Mere hours later, the Defendant committed a domestic violence homicide.”
On Thursday, Katelynn Kearney was charged with criminal homicide.
