Joseph Kennedy, person of interest in Okmulgee homicides, on suicide watch in Florida jail
Joseph Lloyd Kennedy II is on suicide watch in a Florida jail after telling police he was intending to jump off a hotel balcony in Daytona Beach, a charging affidavit shows.
Kennedy is a person of interest in Oklahoma after four shot and dismembered bodies were found in a river near Okmulgee. His wife also filed for divorce on Wednesday.
As first reported by the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Kennedy made the statement about jumping off a hotel balcony to Daytona Beach Shores police on Tuesday after he was arrested after being stopped driving a stolen truck. Kennedy said the truck belonged to a friend, according to the affidavit.
Oklahoma authorities want to question Kennedy about his possible involvement in the slayings of Mark Chastain, Brian Chastain, Mike Sparks and Alex Stevens.
Those men were reported missing Oct. 9 by family members, with a witness telling investigators they had left an Okmulgee residence on bicycles with plans to undertake a "criminal act." On Oct. 14, their bodies were discovered in the Deep Fork River, southwest of Okmulgee.
Okmulgee Police Chief Joe Prentice said Monday investigators had searched a scrap yard where “nothing remarkable was observed,” but had found evidence of a "violent event" on an adjoining property.
“I’ve worked over 80 murders in my career," Prentice said. "I have worked murders involving multiple victims. I have worked dismemberments. But this case involves the highest number of victims, and it’s a very violent event.”
Meanwhile, Prentice also said Monday that Kennedy, who owns a salvage yard in the immediate area and already had been questioned on Oct. 14, had been reported missing and was considered to be suicidal.
Comments Kennedy made to officers who arrested him in Florida the next morning appeared to validate Prentice's assertion.
What Joe Kennedy told Florida police as he was being arrested
According to police records in connection with the felony grand theft charge Kennedy faces in Florida, he agreed to waive his right to remain silent.
Kennedy told police he was friends with the truck's owner and had taken the vehicle without that owner's knowledge to spend the weekend in Florida.
While Kennedy told the officers he was not a missing person and was not in any danger, other comments he made prompted them to believe he was suicidal.
"He did not go home like planned, and admitted ... he was suicidal, with plans to jump off a hotel balcony," according to the report.
On Friday, Kennedy was being held without bond at the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach on a fugitive from justice charge, as well as a grand theft of a motor vehicle charge.
His next court appearance in Florida is scheduled for Dec. 20.
Latest developments in the Okmulgee murders
Prentice, Okmulgee's police chief, didn't have any updates to the case Friday. Okmulgee County District Attorney Carol Iski couldn't be reached.
A records check showed no additional filings related to Kennedy's 2012 case where prosecutors are seeking to accelerate his punishment on assault and battery and obstructing justice charges he pleaded guilty to in 2013.
No criminal filings involving Kennedy related to this month's discovery of the slain men have been made, either.
However, a divorce petition was filed by Kennedy's wife, Sandra Jean Kennedy, on Wednesday. The two were married in 1980.
In her petition, Sandra Jean Kennedy alleges "a state of complete and irreconcilable incompatibility has arisen between the parties ... (rendering) continuation impossible."
An attorney representing Sandra Jean Kennedy declined this week to provide any additional comment, noting negative public attention related to the Okmulgee slayings and authorities' interest in her husband is wearing on his client and other members of her family.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Okmulgee man planned fatal jump before being arrested by officers
