LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas woman charged with the 2019 murder of a California doctor has accepted a plea deal that guarantees she will be eligible for parole in 10 years, according to court documents.
Kelsey Turner took an Alford plea to second-degree murder, which means she isn’t pleading guilty but acknowledges there is enough evidence to convict her.
Prosecutors say Turner and her boyfriend, Jon Kennison, beat psychiatrist 71-year-old Thomas Burchard to death and hid him in the trunk of a car left out in the desert near Lake Mead in March of 2019.
Police said Turner had a relationship with Burchard and he paid her rent.
Kennison was sentenced to 18 to 45 years in prison for his role in Burchard’s death. A roommate of the couple, Diana Nicole Pena, pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder after the killing had her charge reduced from murder.
Turner will be sentenced on Jan. 10, 2023.
