Clallam County judge Brent Basden ordered a competency exam in Clallam County Superior Court on June 3 for Bret Allen Kenney, a 34-year-old accused of attempting to kill a Sequim police officer on May 19.
Kenney’s charges were amended on June 3 to add first degree premeditated murder after law enforcement found Kenney’s mother Teri Ward, 53, murdered in her Sequim area home.
He also faces charges for attempted second-degree murder of a Sequim police officer, assault on an officer, and disarming an officer.
Kenney was scheduled for arraignment last week, but Basden followed the recommendation of Kenney’s attorney John Hayden for a competency evaluation at Western State Hospital. Days prior, Hayden told Basden that Kenney attempted to fire him.
Kenney, appearing via video on June 3, said “This attorney is lying to me about who I am in America and what they’ve been doing to me my whole life; teaching me I’m a stupid piece of s— person, as I grew up.”
Kenney accused Hayden and Basden of lying to him, but he agreed to a competency evaluation.
“Do what you got to do,” Kenney said.
He said people have told him his whole life he needs medication for schizophrenia.
Chief criminal deputy prosecuting attorney Michele Devlin said it’ll take seven to 14 days for Kenney to be evaluated.
Basden agreed to wait for the evaluation before holding an arraignment hearing, and set a status hearing for 1:30 p.m. Friday, June 17. Hayden was retained as Kenney’s attorney.
In May, Basden rescinded Kenney’s bail because of his “propensity for violence.”
Kenney, who was released from incarceration on Jan. 14, has four prior cases of assault on police officers including assaulting one to the point of unconsciousness and taking pepper spray from another officer and striking him with it.
Traffic stop
Captain Randy Plumb with the Kitsap Critical Incident Response Team (KCIRT), the team leading the investigation into Kenney’s alleged actions, reported that Kenney was stopped at 4:31 a.m. on May 19 driving a truck registered to Ward near the intersection of Third Avenue and Washington Street in Sequim.
Plumb said Kenney tackled Sequim police officer Daniel Martinez as he walked back to his patrol car. They fought and during the struggle, Martinez’s weapon discharged, he said.
Citizens, along with Clallam County Sheriff deputies Jeff Pickrell and Bill Cortani, helped Martinez detain Kenney.
Martinez and Kenney sustained non-life threatening injuries and were treated and released from Port Angeles’ Olympic Medical Center.
The Sequim Police Department was not involved in the investigation because gunshots were fired, and KCIRT, a multi-agency task force of 10 law enforcement agencies in Kitsap, Mason and Clallam counties, continues to lead the investigation.
Homicide
According to court documents, a welfare check was requested at 8:38 a.m. May 19 to the 100 block of Senz Road by Ward’s sister after she heard Kenney had been arrested. He had been living with his mother since being released from incarceration, according to Ward’s boyfriend.
Port Angeles Police officers responded to the home to find Ward deceased on a bed with deep cuts on her neck, court documents state.
The previous evening, Ward and her boyfriend gifted Kenney a Toyota pickup, police report, and later that night Ward told her boyfriend over the phone her son was vomiting and she believed it was because of issues with new medications.
In a neighborhood canvas, police spoke to one neighbor who reported that around 5:15-5:30 p.m. on May 18, she heard a male screaming and it appeared it was “definitely just him losing it.” She heard similar screams four days prior, police report.
Washington State Patrol’s Crime Scene Response Team confirmed blood on the interior and exterior of Ward’s truck, and Kenney’s cell phone, court documents state.
Investigators also report blood was found throughout Ward’s home and on the driver’s side door of the Toyota truck gifted to Kenney.
Det. Sgt. Joshua Powless with the Port Angeles Police Department reports that KCIRT investigators found a note inside Kenney’s room that read, “Teri D. will die! This is how you spell cut weirdoes (sic) heads off. Amphedmines (sic). I did that. Kill Murder.”
Law enforcement officers report the note also included random words and phrases, such as “Mask,” “4+4=8” and multiple indiscernible phrases.
A notebook was also found on top of a microwave with a list of items investigators reported they felt was similar to a survival list, including items such as a hatchet, flay knife, drone, saws, two-way radios, ratchet set, generator and more.
On May 26, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy on Ward’s body and determined her death was from multiple sharp-force injuries to her neck, and she was alive when the injuries were sustained, according to court documents.
During a warrant search for Kenney’s DNA, an officer informed Kenney of his mother’s death, and he responded, “Oh yeah?” When told they were investigating her death as a homicide, he replied, “OK,” court documents state.
Law enforcement report Kenney tested positive for methamphetamine at the time of his arrest.
