Kelsey Berreth Murder: Krystal Lee Kenney Could Move To A Halfway House After Serving 2 Months In Prison
TELLER COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) -- Krystal Lee Kenney, who admitted knowing Patrick Frazee was plotting to kill Kelsey Berreth, and helping him clean up the murder scene, could be moved to a halfway house after spending just two months of her three-year sentence behind bars. Kenney is being referred for consideration of placement in a community corrections program. The 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office is objecting to the move.
Kenney, who was Frazee's on-and-off girlfriend, was a key witness in his trial. She claimed Frazee tried three times to get her to murder Berreth and eventually admitted to killing her himself.
Kenney testified that Frazee beat Berreth with a baseball bat inside her Woodland Park condominium, on Thanksgiving Day 2018, while their daughter was in another room.
Prosecutors say Kenney helped them crack the case. Among other things, she showed them places in Berreth's condo where she cleaned blood from the scene. She also showed them where she said Frazee burned Berreth's body outside his home in Florissant.
Kenney told investigators she grabbed several blood-spattered items from Berreth's home to be burned, including a stuffed animal, children's building blocks and what she thought was a Bible, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. She also admitted taking Berreth's phone to Idaho at Frazee's request to make it look like Berreth had left the state.
Lee took a plea bargain in the case and was sentenced to three years in the Colorado Department of Corrections -- but it's not unusual for someone to serve only 25% of their sentence. Without that deal, she could have faced a sentence of more than 100 years.
Offenders placed in community corrections may progress to the Intensive Supervision Program (ISP) to be monitored electronically and reside outside of the halfway house. Prosecutors called moving Kenney to a community-based setting after just two months in the Department of Corrections "simply unconscionable"
The 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office issued the following statement about Kenney's possible move to a halfway house:
"On behalf of Kelsey Berreth's family and friends, along with a still-healing community, we vigorously oppose moving this defendant to any community-based alternative, such as community corrections. It shall never be forgotten that his defendant – who worked as a nurse - was aware of convicted murderer Patrick Frazee's intent to kill Kelsey Berreth, and had she notified anyone – any law enforcement agency or even the victim herself – Ms. Berreth would likely be with her family today. She further drove to Colorado from her home state of Idaho to assist Mr. Frazee after the fact, and proceeded to clean up a gruesome, bloody crime scene. When Judge Scott Sells handed down a three year prison sentence he said what she did was "cold, calculating and cruel" and that if he sentenced her to probation it would minimize the depravity of her actions. We believe that sending her to a halfway house would do just that. This defendant was sentenced to serve three years in prison for her participation in a horrible, depraved crime – 1,095 days. To date she has served barely sixty.
District Attorney Dan May and Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Viehman stated:
"The fact that this defendant is even being considered for "step-down" placement demonstrates once again that Colorado's sentencing scheme is outrageously, dishearteningly distorted – with an utter lack of truth in sentencing - and is in desperate need of reform."
You can read the full letter from the Victim Services Unit to the Community Corrections Board here.
Frazee was convicted of first-degree murder, three counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder and tampering with a deceased human body. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 156 years. His attorneys plan to appeal his conviction.
RELATED: Patrick Frazee Gets Life Sentence For Murdering Fiancée: What About Their 2-Year-Old Daughter?
