TELLER COUNTY — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has agreed to a motion to allow Krystal Kenney, the Idaho nurse who helped clean up the crime scene left behind after Patrick Frazee murdered his fiance, Kelsey Berreth, to be released early from prison.
Kenney was sentenced in January 2020 to three years in prison, as part of a plea deal where she testified against Frazee and pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence. She has served around 13 months of that sentence.
The Colorado Court of appeals ruled that her sentence for a guilty plea on the charge of tampering with evidence was too long for that particular crime and unconstitutional. AG Weiser's office agrees.
Kenney, Frazee's mistress, provided prosecutors all the essential information on how Frazee killed Berreth — beating her to death with a baseball bat while she was blindfolded with a sweater to sniff candles. She also admitted to helping Frazee clean up the crime scene but said she intentionally left evidence for investigators to find.
"We did a deal with the devil. There is no ifs, ands, or buts about that, and I'm not proud of that. But, there's no question that Kelsey wouldn't have had the sure justice without making that deal with the devil," former District Attorney of the 4th Judicial District, Dan May, said following Frazee's trial.
As a result of her testimony, Frazee is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, plus 156 years.
The maximum prison sentence in Colorado for tampering with evidence is 18 months. However, that number was doubled in Kenney's case, because she was charged within the aggravated range of sentencing. Kenney's attorney told News5 that never should have happened.
According to court documents, Kenney may now be eligible for release "in the near future." She currently remains in custody at the Denver Women's Correctional Facility. However, on Thursday the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office said her resentencing hearing has been scheduled for March 23 at 9 a.m.
You can read Attorney General Phil Weiser's motion to expedite the sentence here.
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