A preliminary hearing date has been set for an Alabama man charged in the shooting deaths of his wife and four children – including two of his own – will remain held without bond at least until his next court.
Brandon Allan Kendrick II, 32, is charged with five counts of capital murder.
The charges are four counts of capital murder of a child under the age of 14, and one count of capital murder in the slayings of two or more people in one act.
Killed were Brandon Kendrick’s wife of six years, 24-year-old Kelse Kendrick, and their two children Kaleb Kendrick, 6 and Kynli Kendrick, 2.
The other victims were the couple’s niece and nephew, Haley Daniels, 6, and Colton Daniels, who was killed days just before his 9th birthday.
Their funerals were held Friday.
Kendrick, whose grandfather is the longtime pastor of Oasis of Praise church in McCalla, has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
Kendrick has been appointed three lawyers to represent him. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
District Judge Marvin Woods ordered Kendrick to remain held without bond and set the next court date for Sept. 26, at which time Kendrick will hear the evidence against him, according to the judge’s order made public Monday.
The shooting happened Thursday, July 18, at the home of Pastor Kendrick. His grandson and family lived in the garage apartment on the West Blocton property.
The large, close-knit family earlier that day had gathered at the home of Bill Morrow, Kelse Kendrick’s grandfather, for a pool party to celebrate Colton.
Brandon Kendrick did not attend Colton’s party.
The plan, said cousin Shannon McCoy, was for Kelse Kendrick and all four children to spend the night at Morrow’s home after the party.
Haley and Colton’s mother, Jessica Morrow, had surgery planned for the following day and Kelse Kendrick was keeping the children since Jessica Morrow – her aunt – had to be at the hospital early Friday morning.
Brandon Kendrick repeatedly called his wife, telling her to come home.
Ultimately, McCoy said, Kelse Kendrick agreed to return home. Jessica Morrow took Kelse Kendrick and the four children back to the garage apartment.
Pastor Kendrick told his congregation three days later what happened.
“Ten minutes before I heard a gunshot, my grandson was sitting in my bedroom with me and Gay, laughing, talking, talked about the first time we ever took him to a restaurant for his 13th birthday,’’ Pastor Kendrick said. “He’d never been in a restaurant.”
“All he’d ever known for 12 years was abuse – physical, sexual, mental, drug.”
“When I got him at 12 years old, he weighed 58 pounds,’’ Pastor Kendrick said. “He was on nine different psychotic medicines.”
The pastor went on to say that the system failed his grandson.
When Brandon Kendrick turned 18, Pastor Kendrick said, they took him off disability and took him off medication because the family couldn’t afford to buy it since his Medicaid was canceled.
“Gay and I watched him all these years try so hard,’’ the pastor said. “We talked to every agency, we talked to everybody, we tried everything. We had him institutionalized in hospitals only to have him discharged with no medication, no follow, up no doctor.”
Pastor Kendrick said in the predawn hours of that Thursday, Brandon Kendrick had called 911 asking for help, “only to be turned down,’’ he said.
“In the bedroom with me and Gay, we talked about the J. Alexanders lunch we took him to and a few other things. We were laughing and talking,’’ the pastor said. “His wife had gotten home. She came in, laughed with us a little while, left.”
“He (Brandon) got up, 10 minutes later, ‘Pow’’’ Pastor Kendrick said.
“I told Gay, ‘That’s a gunshot,’’’ he said. ‘’She said it was.”
Moments later, Brandon Kendrick walked into the bedroom with a gun in his hand. Gay Kendrick was closest to him.
“She grabbed the gun. It went off,’’ Pastor Kendrick said. “I don’t know how it kept from hitting her.”
“Yeah, yeah I do know,’’ he said.
“Because our prayer time that night, about an hour before this incident, our prayer team stood here and joined hands and prayed for mine and Gay’s safety,’’ he said. “I had reached out to several of the church members, they were helping me trying to get some kind of help. So, they prayed for us.”
“I was able to subdue him,’’ Pastor Kendrick said of his grandson. “And once that happened, he didn’t know where he was at.’’
“He started asking me and Gay, ‘Where am I at? Where’s Kelse? Why are you angry? What’d I do wrong,’’’ he said.
“Ten minutes before that he’s laughing, talking and having a pretty good time,’’ Pastor Kendrick said. “Don’t you think that if you don’t have Jesus, you’re going to walk out of here and everything’s going to be cool because you ain’t no match for the devil.”
“Do you think you’re strong enough to resist the devil if he were to possess you?” he said. “You better get your heart right with God, because you may be the next one on national news.”
