Accused gunman in slaying of ex-wife inside a…
Accused gunman in slaying of ex-wife inside a Wawa also wrote farewell note to son
Tells 6-year-old 'you can hate me for this' and that grandmother would collect $2 million in life insurance.
RICH ILGENFRITZ – MEDIANEWS GROUP
Brian Kennedy at his preliminary hearing in May 2019 on charges of fatally shooting his ex-wife in a Radnor Wawa. (DAILY TIMES)
By Alex Rose | arose@delcotimes.com | The Times Herald
MEDIA COURTHOUSE – A Tredyffrin Township man accused of killing his ex-wife inside a Radnor Wawa in March 2019 left a farewell note to their 6-year-old son indicating he did not expect to survive the day.
"I hope what I have planned works," Brian Kennedy allegedly wrote in a journal police later found in his apartment. "I hope my life wasn't for nothing. If everything goes as planned, g'ma should be getting $2 million from my life insurance policy."
Kennedy, 37, is on trial this week before Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Cappelli for allegedly walking into the Wawa on Sugartown Road with an AR-15-style rifle and shooting 37-year-old Stephanie Miller numerous times at about 8:20 p.m. on March 28, 2019.
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BRIAN KENNEDY
He is charged with criminal homicide, murder in the first and third degree, and related offenses.
'You can hate me for this'
County detective Dave McDonald read the hand-written journal entry Kennedy left for his son, Norrin, to the court Wednesday. It was dated March 28 at 4:51 p.m. and described how Kennedy wanted the boy to pursue creative arts, take care of his hygiene, and live his life with honor and compassion.
Kennedy admits in the passage to having an affair in the journal, and says that Miller hated him with a "blind rage" and wanted to put him in jail.
"I know if things continue like they are, she would hurt you to hurt me," Kennedy wrote to his son, named after the Marvel Comics character Norrin Rad. "I despise what I have to do, but I can't see any other option. You can hate me for this — I hate myself. I tried my hardest to keep this from happening. I begged your mother but she wouldn't change her mind."
Miller obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Kennedy following a 2016 incident at the same Wawa at 151 Sugertown Road, during which police allege Kennedy threatened to kill Miller. The PFA expired in September 2018 and was not renewed, according to authorities.
McDonald said she had some legal paperwork in the back seat of her car when investigators later searched it.
Jurors also heard from the victim's mother, Carol Miller, who said her daughter and Kennedy had been briefly married, separated, and then divorced in 2015. She is raising Norrin, now 10 years old.
Kennedy sat through the proceedings facing the jury from the edge of the defense table, but rarely showed emotion during testimony. He would occasionally put his hand to his forehead, but otherwise stared passively straight ahead or looked down with a blank expression.
Night of terror
Kennedy and Miller were supposed to be meeting to swap custody of their son, but Kennedy came alone and armed, according to testimony and video surveillance shown in court during a trial this week.
Four Wawa employees working that shift described seeing either the shooting or the aftermath. Patrick Winnemord was 18 at the time and working the front counter at 8:20 p.m., when he said Kennedy entered the store with the rifle at his waist and a determined look.
"He came in, went past me, rounded the center register area, went back towards the coffee where the victim was and shot her several times," Winnemord testified. "(He) then turned around, made his way out of the store and left."
A memorial to Stephanie Miller at the Wawa on Sugartown Road in Radnor in 2019 to the Devon mother shot to death by her ex husband. (DAILY TIMES)
Henry Salinas, another employee at the time, told Assistant District Attorney Matt DeNucci he was next to the coffee area when the shooting began. He said he recognized Kennedy from prior drop-offs.
"I just froze up, because I recognized him and then I saw the rifle, so I didn't know what was happening," Salinas testified. "I thought maybe he was going to rob the place."
Salinas and Winnemord told defense attorney Michael Dugan that Kennedy had a different demeanor than at other times they had seen him.
Isaiah Parham was also working that night in the nearby deli area.
He said Kennedy came up behind Miller, shot her four or five times, then left. Parham said he did not think it was a real gun at first. Parham was the only employee who did not recognize Kennedy from his being in the store in the past, but they all identified him in photo arrays.
Connor Nelson, the supervisor that evening, testified that he did not see the shooting because he was in the back of the store, but heard the shots and hit a silent alarm in the cold box. He pulled up video surveillance for police later and said he recognized Kennedy from that footage as a man who would drop off Norrin during exchanges with Miller.
Customer Paul Difelice said he had stopped in to grab a bag of popcorn. As he approached Kennedy, he said he made eye contact, saw a rifle in his hands and heard Kennedy say an expletive to him.
"It was the first time I had seen that in public in my life," Defelice testified. "You see it in movies all the time. But social media, maybe, I was thinking, 'video they were filming.' The worst did not pop to my head."
Defelice said he went to grab the popcorn even after seeing the rifle, but then heard the shooting and ran out of there fast.
Mark Turner said he was just arriving to the Wawa with his son after dinner.
They planned to grab a snack when his son said, "Dad, we maybe need to get out of here. I just saw a guy get a gun out of his car," Turner testified.
"I looked up — we were parked directly in front of the window at that point — and I saw a man with a gun pointed down, shooting," Turner continued. "At that point I started backing out to exit the parking lot."
Turner said he parked around the side of the building and then entered the Wawa, where he found the victim on the floor. He said he checked Miller's pulse and spoke to her, but there was no response.
A cloud of gun smoke hung in the air, he said. It was about then that an emergency medical technician and police officer entered the store, according to Turner.
Another customer, Jay Apoin, said he had stopped by the Wawa that night to pick up a late dinner. He was emailing a colleague on his phone when he suddenly heard a couple of loud bangs that drew his attention to the deli and coffee area, he testified.
"I saw a cloud of smoke and saw a fire streak," he said. "I saw a shooter."
Apoin crouched and fled the store, then ran across the street to hide behind a vehicle parked there. When he spotted a Radnor police car, Apoin ran up to the passenger side and got the attention of Officer Stephanie Racht.
Securing the scene
Racht testified that she was on routine patrol when Apoin approached and informed her of the situation.
She radioed in a shooting at the Wawa and parked outside, where another person informed her the gunman had just driven off toward Clover Lane. Racht relayed that information, too, then entered the store and found Miller lifeless.
Radnor Patrol Sgt. Daniel Lunger received word from Racht about the shooting and proceeded to the Wawa, where he had an employee take him in the back and show him the surveillance footage.
He said Radnor Detective T.J. Schreiber was on scene and identified Miller as the victim.
State police Trooper Scott Costa was also present and said he knew Miller was associated with Kennedy. He pulled up a recent PennDOT picture of Kennedy on his computer and showed Lunger, who matched the photo to the man with the rifle in the store video.
Edmond Pisani, a former video and technology expert with the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division, testified that he went to a connected beer distributor to retrieve and review video from their external cameras.
Pisani narrated video from those external cameras of Kennedy's black 2015 BMW 320i pulling into a parking space to the right of the Wawa's front doors head-first, then backing out, turning around, and backing into the space.
Kennedy exits the car and can be seen in the video pacing in front of the store at about 8:19 p.m.
A few seconds later, the video shows him suddenly moving to the trunk, opening it, retrieving the weapon, and rushing into the Wawa. Less than 30 seconds later, Kennedy exits the store, jumps in the driver's seat and flees the parking lot.
Pisani said he was given Kennedy's cellphone number and requested a "ping" from AT&T, which placed the phone in Thornbury Park.
Suspect located
Trooper Vladimir Gouin said he found the BMW in a lot at that location and parked his own unmarked vehicle some distance away, then approached Kennedy's vehicle on foot through the woods. He coordinated with a team of fellow troopers and came upon the BMW first from the passenger side, then on the driver's side.
The troopers broke the window of the locked driver's side door, pulled Kennedy from the vehicle and placed him into custody, said Gouin.
"He was not very responsive," Gouin said. "He possibly could have been drunk or on some kind of drugs."
"He was very slow and sluggish," said state police Cpl. Brendan Connor. "He wasn't making much sense. He really wasn't speaking."
Kennedy was transported to Crozer-Chester Medical Center with a trooper in the ambulance, where he was later preliminarily arraigned at bedside. He has been in custody at the Delaware County Prison in Concord since.
McDonald said he photographed the crime scene and BMW that night.
He noted nine fired .223 cartridge casings at the scene, as well as three live .223 rounds, and damage to digital menu screens in the store.
Miller's body can be seen in the photographs lying in a passageway between the deli and coffee area with a cloth placed over her. A pool of blood is gathered near her head in the photographs.
McDonald also photographed the rifle as it was found on the manufacturer's box in the trunk of the BMW and identified the same weapon in court Wednesday. The magazine in the rifle had 16 live rounds and another chambered, he said.
A cellphone, two knives, a canvas belt with another magazine loaded with 30 rounds, a full box of 40 .223 rounds, syringes, tubing and two pill bottles in Kennedy's name were also found in the vehicle, along with a receipt for the rifle purchased March 16, 2019.
Radnor Detective Jim Santoliquito said he had secured surveillance footage stills of Kennedy going into King Shooter Supply in King of Prussia March 16 to buy the rifle, as well as a return visit March 27, the day before the shooting.
A receipt showed Kennedy bought the gun and ammunition on March 16.
Santoliquito also went over forms Kennedy filled out to buy the weapon for $499 in cash that day, and a form indicating he had passed a background check conducted by state police. The March 27 receipt showed he purchased an additional magazine and ammunition, said Santoliquito.
The trial is expected to conclude Jan. 26.
Alex Rose | Reporter
Alex Rose is a crime and courts reporter at the Daily Times
arose@delcotimes.com
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