{"id":97030,"date":"2025-12-27T05:50:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T05:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/97030\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T05:50:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T05:50:17","slug":"note-reveals-troubled-past-of-drunk-florida-dad-who-killed-wife-shot-teen-stepdaughter-in-face-over-monday-night-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/97030\/","title":{"rendered":"Note reveals troubled past of drunk Florida dad who killed wife, shot teen stepdaughter in face over ‘Monday Night Football’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The murdered wife of a Florida football fanatic<\/a> accused him of drug and alcohol abuse in a haunting note discovered by investigators, a local sheriff said this week.<\/p>\n

Crystal Kenney was shot Monday night by her husband Jason, who became enraged after a night of drinking when she asked him to turn off that night\u2019s NFL game between his beloved San Francisco 49ers and the Indianapolis Colts.<\/p>\n

When police arrived at the Lakeland home, they found Crystal dead, her 13-year-old daughter suffering from gunshot wounds to the face and shoulder<\/a> and the letter pleading for Jason to change his ways.<\/p>\n

Crystal Kenney was killed by him after she asked her husband to turn off the Monday Night Football game. Facebook \/ Jason Kenney<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re drinking, you\u2019re using cocaine again. This is not the way the family should be. You need God,\u201d the note states, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The message was undated but had been left for anyone to read, the sheriff added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no idea whether or not she wrote the letter [the night of the shooting] or this has been built up over time. That will be part of the investigation into the future,\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was there and it was open for the detectives to see. It\u2019s not like we had to search it up in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relatives told police that Jason Kenney, 47, was known to beat Crystal \u2014 but cops never received any domestic violence calls from the address.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a family disturbance\u00a0that apparently had gone on for some\u00a0time. We talked to another family member\u00a0and that family member said,\u00a0\u2018Oh, he\u2019s been beating on her for a\u00a0while,’\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Grady Judd said relatives told deputies he was known to be physically abusive. Polk County Sheriff<\/p>\n

\u201cShe tells him, \u2018You need God. You\u2019re slipping into abuse of drugs and alcohol,\u2019 and it ends up this way. And quite frankly, it\u2019s\u00a0not surprising. Some women protect their husbands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Kenney has no criminal history, the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office confirmed to The Post Friday.<\/p>\n

After shooting his wife and stepdaughter, Kenney drove to his deceased father\u2019s house in nearby Lake Wales, where he shot himself in the head inside of a shed as police surrounded the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite frankly, I don\u2019t want to sound sinister, but the only thing he did right that night was shoot himself after those horrible deeds,\u201d Judd said. \u201cIf he felt that way, he could have taken himself out and not hurt those two beautiful people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph Kenney shot himself in the head at his late father\u2019s house, authorities said. Facebook \/ Crystal Kenney<\/p>\n

The 13-year-old was rushed to a local hospital and is expected to survive in what Judd called a \u201cChristmas miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018I begged him, don\u2019t shoot me, don\u2019t shoot me, don\u2019t shoot me, and he shot me anyway,\u201d Judd said the teen told investigators.<\/p>\n

Jason Kenney\u2019s other stepchild, a 12-year-old boy who ran to a neighbor\u2019s house for help after Crystal told him to call 911, was unharmed \u2014 as was a 1-year-old girl the couple shared whom investigators found sleeping in her crib.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The murdered wife of a Florida football fanatic accused him of drug and alcohol abuse in a haunting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[265,28,30,29,7860,6889,4278],"class_list":{"0":"post-97030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-murder-suicide","13":"tag-shootings","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}