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Escambia Man Convicted Of Killing His Grandfather
July 19, 2013
An Escambia County man was convicted Thursday of the first degree murder of his grandfather.
Thomas Isaiah Bunch fatally shot 69-year old Cleo Kennedy while the yard of a home they shared on Fiesta Drive on June 26, 2011. Bunch later confessed to the killing.
Bunch, 29, now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Comments
13 Responses to “Escambia Man Convicted Of Killing His Grandfather”
REGARDING:
“As for whether him getting help would have prevented any of this, I don’t know…..but it wouldn’t have hurt.”
Eating more collards also might not help but wouldn’t hurt.
And that’s the thing. Just because we wish we could help, doesn’t mean there is a thing we can do before the killing.
Anything we could do could also be used to deprive us of our civil rights. Remember how the USSR didn’t have prisons, they had insane asylums. They figured anyone who committed crimes against their practically perfect state must be insane.
Blaming the government for not stopping the killing in advance would be reasonable if they COULD actually have done so. Even the medications you mention (assuming they exist) only work if they are taken. It would be nice if we could always be proactive and stop problems before they became problems (like we did when we invaded Iraq just in case they had weapons of mass destruction) but they don’t always work and we are stuck with being reactive.
David for sanely viewing the real world
(on all our parts)
@David,
I was simply making sure that I had not given the impression that I thought he should be set free, turned loose upon society.
As for whether him getting help would have prevented any of this, I don’t know…..but it wouldn’t have hurt.
No, we can’t always “cure” insanity, but we can usually help regulate behavior…hence, preventing things like this from happening.
Religious beliefs…idiocy…not really, but when it manifests itself in the behavior that leads to situations such as this, it’s not a religious belief, it’s a delusion and should be treated as such.
No, we can’t force treatment….UNLESS it causes them to be a threat to themselves or others. At that time, they can be “Baker Acted” for 72 hours. At the end of that time, if they have convinced the doctors that they are no threat or their condition has stabilized, then they are released. If the doctors believe that they are a threat, then they can be held until such time as they are no longer considered to be a danger.
REGARDING:
“Perhaps if he had gotten the help he desperately needed…..his grandfather would be alive today, he wouldn’t be sitting in jail, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all.”
(unlike the previous comment which was not directed to you)
Perhaps he would have.
Does our current state of mental health capability include the ability to cure his insanity?
Would he have accepted that help if it did exist?
This person’s mother claims his grandfather practiced black magic and she was too strong for it to work on her but that it worked on her son.
Does our current state of mental health capability include the ability to cure her insanity?
Would she accept it?
Further, it is obviously part of her religious belief that the black magic and demons were involved. Can you lawfully treat a person’s religious beliefs just because you consider them idiotic?
David for better people
@Keep It Real,
Maybe you didn’t read my posts. I knew Thomas. I say “knew” instead of know because I haven’t seen him since right before this tragic event occurred. I work in the psychology field. I DO know that he is mentally ill. I am not commenting on things I do not know. I am commenting only on what I DO know.
I don’t know his family, nor did I disrespect them in any way. I am so sorry for the loss and pain that they all are feeling. I’ve been there, and I understand. That’s one of the reasons I chose to go into psychology, to help prevent these things from happening to other families.
There are always questions after something like this happens. There are always different facts and opinions that are brought to light and voiced. Some will disagree with the opinions, but you can’t dispute the evidence. That includes the evidence that he had been battling mental illness for quite some time before this tragedy. Perhaps if he had gotten the help he desperately needed…..his grandfather would be alive today, he wouldn’t be sitting in jail, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all.
nami.org is a nice starting place if you would like to research how many people are affected by mental illness, signs, symptoms, treatments, ways to help, etc.
@just saying
U read what cleo’s son said, didn’t u? stop defending what u don’t know!! u don’t know if Thomas was mentally ill, what i hear and see i do not think that he was, it sounds like he might of had a mental break, but was sane enough to hide the fact he did something wrong, and from what i heard he said he wanted to wait till his mother and little sisterswhere gone before he shot and killed his grandfather. that does not sound mental unstable it sounds down right wrong, and he knew it, respect the family, just saying!
@David,
I hope that I was clear in my posts that I don’t think Thomas should be out walking the streets. He needs to be confined, yes, not in a regular prison but rather in a mental facility where he can get help and come to terms with what he has done. I don’t know if he even realizes it because he is so delusional.
I don’t think anyone is saying that he should be out in society because he obviously had a severe mental disorder.
@Cleo’s son, I am so sorry for you lose and it wasn’t fair that your father had to die like that by the hands of his own grandson but no one choses to be mentally ill. I work with people like this everyday and what they think, hear and see is so real to them and without the proper medications they can act on what the voices commands or what they think they see. I agree that we do need a better mental health care system and doctors to help them and not keep them in for three days and turn them out.
He claims demons told him to do it.
Does anyone really think he is sane?
Does anyone really want him running around loose?
If you do, please make arrangements to keep him in your house.
@Mick,
Obviously you’ve never known anyone who had a mental illness. After having worked with many victims of these horrible diseases and studying psychology and its many abnormalities, I can assure you that it doesn’t take any level of normalcy to pull a trigger. For all we know, when this happened, he saw some huge, grotesque, menacing “demon” attacking HIM!
I know that a man has lost his life! It’s a very sad situation. What’s even sadder is that Thomas needed mental health services and DID NOT RECEIVE THEM!!! If he had, this scenario probably would have turned out entirely differently!
Prison is not going to help him any. Instead of getting the treatment he needs, he’ll be “doped up”, pushed to the side, ignored, and probably bullied by the other prisoners. I guess the plus side to that is that he’ll never even realize that he’s being “punished” or what he did because his mental faculties left him quite some time ago.
Question for you: would you punish a child in the same way? I mean a small child who obviously didn’t understand what he/she had done? That’s what you’re saying, because his ability to understand any of this is just the same.
It’s very sad for all involved. We need a better mental health care system, one that can actually be accessed! Until we have more readily available help, stories like these will continue to happen, more innocent lives will be ruined, and more people who have no understanding of the problems will continue to speak about things of which they know nothing.
Disagree…he should be in prison…mental prison if you like…obviously he had the mental faculties to pull the trigger…and medication is not the fix all …an artificial “Im ok” feeling brought on by something prescribed to control a mental imbalance is not the answer either… a man is dead
To everyone, It is not far that Cleo Kennedy lost his life at the hands of his own Grandson, He just retired he was going to spend his days relaxing, and fishing with his brother. But that did not happen, because of what u call his unfairly sentenced mentally ill grandson, who had a job, paid bills, drove a car, bought a gun, knew when to use the gun, fled the scene, and u think it is not far that he is in jail??? U tell me, what is fair?? I personally fell sad by the fact my own nephew will spend the rest of his life in jail, All i can do is remember him as a child, so happy so energetic. But that is not the same person who killed his own grandad, the person who took him in when he had no where to live. My children will not get to know their own Granddad, they will never get to visit him. Issac is still alive and he choose his own destiny. The family can finally rest, And Maybe Mr. Cleo Kennedy can be at peace in Heaven!!! Miss u Dad!!
@ just saying. I agree, the mental health care here is not what it is suppose to be. I have a family member who gradually became mental she left her husband to go to my parents then felt unsafe and came to my house , she would stay up for days thinking somebody was going to kill her and walked around my house with knives. multiple occasions i called the cops to have her baker acted but 3 days later she would be out again, we were thankful after over a year of this FINALLY the right docotr at lakeview seen her and didnt allow her to leave after 3 days she stayed a few months and thats what sshe needed, she needed to be there until they found her the right meds. She is ow able to live a more normal life all tho her daughter is still trying o get over the thingsshe saw her do. My thing is it shouldn’t had gone on this long but i am thankful a doctor seen what treatment she needed and did just that before she acted uon something she heard in her head and would spend the rest of her life in jail where there would be no help for her.
Thomas has some major mental problems. I saw him change beyond my imagination over the course of two years. At first, he was amazingly upbeat and positive, a joy to be around. Then he began to appear depressed. By the end of the second year, he often didn’t make sense when he talked. Our conversations consisted of me trying to extricate myself from the situation because he was not making sense and talking about demons, plots to kill his girlfriend, etc. He was obviously mentally ill. I spoke to WalMart management about this (he was employed at the one in Ensley) on more than one occasion and was told that he was getting help. Obviously, he didn’t get enough help…..and he won’t get it in prison either.
It’s a very sad situation for all involved, but I don’t understand how any expert could have considered him fit to stand trial. He shouldn’t be in prison….he should be in a mental facility.