Almost three years after charges were filed against a Brown County man for allegedly attacking his brother at their family home, a jury has decided Kenneth Guy’s fate — partially.
Guy, 61, was found not guilty of the most serious charge, attempted murder, a Level 1 felony.
He was found guilty of criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, a Level 6 felony, and resisting law enforcement, a Class A misdemeanor.
After nearly 12 hours of deliberation, the jury of eight women and six men was unable to come to a unanimous verdict on the fourth charge, aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony. The vote was 10-2 in favor of guilty.
The verdicts were handed down close to midnight March 22 after a four-day trial.
Prosecutor Ted Adams said he would be seeking a new trial on the aggravated battery charge. It has been scheduled for June 3. A sentencing hearing also will take place once a jury comes to a verdict in the new trial.
Guy remains in jail while awaiting the second trial.
Guy also admitted during his testimony in this trial to a separate Level 6 felony forgery charge. His sentence has not yet been decided in that case either.
The brothers accused each other of starting the fight.
The victim, David Guy, 58, admitted to being high on meth, opioids and marijuana on Sept. 6, 2016, when the incident happened. He testified that Kenneth was acting unstable before the attack.
How the attack was carried out was one of the points that was debated at trial. Conflicting information and theories were presented about what type of weapons were used, and the defense brought up multiple alternate scenarios behind what had happened at the house, including that Kenneth was framed.
After he was arrested, Kenneth wrote a letter trying to bribe a fellow inmate to say another man committed the attack against David.
Kenneth also wrote a letter to his brother’s public defender, acting as David, saying he wanted to recant what he said happened; he said his brother did not commit the attack, and instead it was another man who was at the home. That letter resulted in his forgery charge.
“When a crime is committed in Hell, don’t expect angels as witnesses,” Adams told jurors in his opening statement.
“This will play out like a Jerry Springer episode.”
Prosecution says
Kenneth Guy lived in California before moving back to Indiana to live with his sister. She eventually kicked him out in April 2016 due to his “erratic and bizarre” behavior, Adams told the jury.
That’s when Kenneth moved in with his mother and brother on Old Settlers Road. Barbara Guy, their mother, passed away in July 2016, which led to a further deterioration of Kenneth’s and David’s relationship, Adams said.
Kenneth allegedly threatened David with a bayonet, a samurai sword and a 22-caliber rifle. Adams said the threats were so bad that David took precautionary steps and borrowed a gun from his sister, which he kept by his bed.
Due to Kenneth’s behavior, David locked him out of the house in August 2016 by nailing up the windows and doors, the prosecution said.
On cross examination, David admitted to threatening to kill Kenneth “because he was threatening to kill me.”
Kenneth later testified that David had boarded up the house because he was upset with their sister who was the executor of their mother’s estate. Evidence and testimony was also presented showing Kenneth had reached out to law enforcement three times to see if police could escort him to the house so he could get his belongings.
The two did not have any direct contact until Sept. 6, 2016, when Kenneth arrived at the Old Settlers Road home to get his belongings so he could move out. David agreed to let him in because his brother was being friendly.
A witness to the incident testified that he had arrived at the home with two meals for David from Mother’s Cupboard, which included corn on the cob. David went inside to get a knife to cut the corn off because he had dentures.
Kenneth later testified that he was the one who brought the meal to David. Kenneth testified that David raised a knife at him and he used karate to disable David, causing him to fall off the porch and on a flower bed, possibly causing the injuries to his head.
“I know I didn’t shoot him, and I didn’t try to kill him,” Kenneth testified.
David testified that he sat down outside to have his dinner at about the time the eyewitness was leaving. David reported he heard a “pop” and felt “white hot rebar” burning the right side of his scalp. He reported smelling gun powder and blood.
The prosecution said that David was first shot in the head, then hit with a baseball bat.
After being hit with the bat, David fell off the porch and landed on the ground face-down.
David showed the scar from the first wound to the jury and said he still picks bullet fragments out of his head. Under questioning from the defense, David said he never turned those over to police for further testing.
What actually made that wound — a bullet or a knife point, or something else — became a point of argument between the defense and the prosecution.
After the attack, Kenneth fled the scene.
“I realized he had a rifle right there, he may shoot me, so I’m getting out of there. I put my stuff in my car, hopped in and got out of there. I didn’t trust him. I was afraid he was going lie about the situation, and I was on probation,” Kenneth testified.
“All throughout life, David blamed things on me.”
The witness, Randy Cole, told the court that he saw the incident as he was leaving the driveway. He called his mother and told her to call 911. A recording of the 911 call was played in court. She reported a shooting at the Guy residence.
Police found Kenneth at a home on Melvin Road. He tried to flee on foot, but was caught. He collapsed and was taken to a hospital.
When police arrived at the Guy home, they found a garden sickle with what they believed to be blood and hair on it. The police believed that was the weapon and collected it, Adams said.
Police took a bat belonging to Kenneth into evidence, but could not find the gun that was allegedly used in the attack. Adams stated that Kenneth would have had over an hour to “to ditch the gun” when he fled the scene to go to the home on Melvin Road.
Adams argued that after his arrest, Kenneth began a “campaign of manipulation.” He wrote letters to family and friends blaming the attack on the eyewitness. Kenneth also tried to bribe a fellow inmate with $1,000 to say that the eyewitness was responsible for the attack.
Adams noted in his opening argument that Kenneth never used a self-defense argument in his letters to family and friends.
Kenneth’s “campaign of manipulation” continued as late as two weeks before the trial when he sent letters to a sister threatening to expose her for illegal activity if she testified.
David Guy was arrested for dealing methamphetamine less than two months after the attack. Pictures taken of his bedroom with narcotics and paraphernalia in view were shown to the jury.
“Folks, you can’t make this stuff up,” Adams said.
“Addict or not, David guy did not deserve to be shot in the head on his own porch while he ate his dinner by Kenneth Wayne Guy.”
Defense says
Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin told jurors that David was high on opiates, meth and marijuana that night, and he tried to attack Kenneth first. He said it was because David thought Kenneth had stolen methamphetamine from him. Kenneth then attacked David in self-defense, his defense team stated.
Baldwin argued that David tried to use a knife to attack Kenneth, and that police did not collect that knife as evidence.
In closing arguments, defense lawyer Matthew Price stated that the knife was missing a tip, and that could be the piece of metal that doctors reported seeing in David’s head and thought was a bullet fragment.
He also argued that no blood was found in the home from when David said he walked in to wash blood from his face so that he could see his phone to call for help.
The defense also argued that Cole, the eyewitness, told different stories about what happened.
Cole first told police that he did not see a gun be used. He told police that he heard something and saw Kenneth hit David with something. After time passed, he said he saw a gun and that it was a .22-caliber rifle.
He also initially told police he walked to the home from the Bean Blossom Trailer Court where he lived, but later admitted to driving. During the trial, Cole said he lied about driving because he did not have a driver’s license and he was afraid he would get into trouble.
Baldwin also argued that reasonable doubt existed because police did not establish a timeline, get cellphone records, check the sign-in list from the food pantry where David’s meal came from, or knock on the doors of neighbors to get their statements.
The defense provided alternative theories to what happened that day, including David Guy framing his brother for the attack to help cover up for the fact that David was missing some methamphetamine, and possibly save David from getting into trouble with another dealer.
David testified that he did not owe money to any drug dealers.
In his closing, Adams called the defense’s alternative theories the “land of unicorns” and encouraged the jury to “remain grounded in reason, logic and common sense.”
