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April 30, 2005
'I was justified,' man says of killings
Brian E. Kelly says he planned to kill himself but turned on abuser instead.
Brian E. Kelly says he was paying back his half brother for years of sexual abuse April 23 when he emptied a shotgun shell into Wayne A. Grubb's skull.
Then he turned to his mother, partly in rage and partly because he felt she hadn't done enough to stop Grubb's behavior. He shot Janis C. Owen in the doorway, killing her.
"I know what I did was illegal. I know a lot of people will say what I did was wrong. But I was justified," said Kelly, 35, about the 6 a.m. shooting at the 1405 E. Cherry home he and his mother were renting.
After shooting Owen, Kelly said he went back into the living room to find his brother twitching.
"Then in the living room, he was still shaking. I shot him again because I didn't want him to suffer like he made me suffer," Kelly said. "I just wanted him dead."
Kelly is being held at the Greene County Jail, where he told his side of the story to the News-Leader. Kelly has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action.
His family has chosen not to comment at length about the shootings or Kelly's explanation.
"I do not support anything Brian has done or said. The family is grieving heavily at the loss of its members," said Marilyn Levan, Kelly's half sister.
Originally, Kelly said, he planned to kill himself.
He sat down to write a note, where he explained why he was committing suicide, then changed his mind, turning his frustration to his brother.
"It turned from a suicide note to a Wayne-must-die note," Kelly said.
After shooting both family members, Kelly said he put his week-old shotgun away in his room and threw away notebooks full of journal entries. He didn't want his family to find the accounts of depression, self-hate and anger for others.
Records back allegation
Court records appear to support Kelly's contention that his half brother assaulted him as a child.
According to Boone County Prosecutor Kevin Crane, Grubb was convicted of deviate sexual assault on a minor in 1983. The victim was 14 or 15 years old and Grubb "displayed a deadly weapon in a threatening manner" during the abuse.
Kelly would have been 14 then, which is the last time he said he was abused by his older half brother in Columbia.
Grubb was sentenced to one year in prison, but served only 52 days and the balance was stayed while he was placed on two-year supervised probation, according to documents.
The victim is not named because of his age, but terms of the probation demanded Grubb "is to remain away from (the) home of Janis Owen when victim present and to have no contact with victim."
Springfield police Sgt. Mike Owen said Kelly has made similar statements to police, saying that the defendant "did go into language of past abuse when he talked to us."
Sgt. Owen confirmed that Kelly has alleged to police that he was sexually abused by his half brother, and that his alleged homicides stem from that abuse.
The second-degree murder charge could be upgraded before his May 17 preliminary trial, but Greene County Prosecutor Darrell Moore is waiting for all reports to come in.
Moore said Kelly's justification is not likely to excuse the killings.
His sentencing if convicted, however, would depend on the jury's interpretation of the abuse.
"The reality is he still killed them. To say it absolves him from the crime, that's up to a jury," Moore said. "But it could mitigate the punishment a jury might give you. The more time you give them to talk about it, the more it might change their mind."
Suicidal thoughts
A large man with glasses, a six o'clock shadow and multiple tattoos — at least two on his biceps, one left elbow and a right forearm — and a self-described "Germanic Pagan," Kelly said he was clinically depressed and had decided three weeks ago that he was going to kill himself. It was to be his third attempt, he said.
The plan was set in motion. He emptied his bank account and stopped showing up for work as an over-the-road truck driver.
According to Kelly, he bought a shotgun and the ammunition at Bass Pro Shops in less than an hour, after lying on the application about his stay at a mental institution.
Bass Pro said information about the sale was not readily available.
Regardless of Kelly's misinformation, the shop apparently did not violate any laws in the sale. According to an official with the Division of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, all persons are put through a background check that looks at criminal records, not mental health history. Kelly had never been convicted of a crime.
Effects of abuse
Barbara Brown, director of the Child Advocacy Center, said confiding in parents about sexual abuse is rare, but critical.
"Less than 40 percent of the abused tell someone," Brown said. "Being believed by a family member is paramount to a kid's recovery."
Brown also said the closer the relationship, the tougher the abuse is on the victim.
"No parent wants to be faced with choosing a child," she said.
Kelly maintained that his mother loved him but ultimately chose Grubb over him.
"I told Mom about the abuse. She didn't call the cops. Instead she called the therapist," Kelly said, alleging the therapist, not his mother, tipped police about the abuse.
Nancy Cooper with the Victim Center said as kids mature, the abuse can affect them differently.
"Developmentally you may not understand things until you get older. As a 5-year-old, you have fears, but as a 13-year-old, you have a new set of fears," she said.
From jail, Kelly wondered what life would have been like without the abuse.
"He caused most of my problems. I'm not saying I would have been perfect, but had I not been sexually abused, it would have been better," he said, sobbing.
Partying before the killings
The day before the killings, after eating lunch at Imo's just down the street from his home, Kelly was watching television at noon when he answered a knock on the door.
He was shocked, he said, to see his half brother, whom he had not seen in a few years. Wayne Grubb, who lived in Centralia, was looking for their mother.
"Things weren't perfect, but they were getting better," Kelly said of the relationship between the two half brothers.
Kelly didn't know why his brother was in town, but said the three sat down and discussed their history.
"Everything was fine; we talked about the past. No one raised their voice and we talked about things we remembered," he said, declining to elaborate.
Things were fine, Kelly said as the brothers agreed to go to Steak 'n Shake, each having a milkshake. The two later decided to go out, attending a drag show at Martha's Vineyard, a downtown bar.
Kelly said he drank, but Grubb did not.
Kelly said Grubb left the bar early while he stayed behind, later going out to eat with some friends before arriving home around 3 a.m.
His half brother was asleep on the couch.
Then he sat down to write his suicide note, but in a snap decision decided to kill Grubb instead, he said.
"I shocked myself. I always considered myself kind of a chicken. I had always been outgoing, but not real confrontational," he said.
"I don't want to say I was on a mission. I was just in rage. (I shot my mom) partly because I didn't want her to see what I'd done to Wayne."
Posted by Nealus at April 30, 2005 07:09 PM
