Tri-Cities woman will serve ‘life term’ for killing a partner who saw the good in her

Kathy Chervenell-Brinson believed the woman she met in a 12-step addiction recovery program was a good person.

But after years of threats and violence, she was killed by Chiloe Chervenell and her body left under a pile of junk on the porch of her Mesa home.

“The court had the chance to review the affidavits and the other facts of the matter, and to put it pretty bluntly, I was sick. It was horrible,” Judge Sam Swanberg said during Chervenell’s sentencing on Thursday.

“Not only did you treat someone inhumanely, in fact you treated them ... like they weren’t so much as trash,” he said.

The Kennewick woman pleaded guilty to first-degree murder earlier this week for strangling her partner last August.

Swanberg said he was reluctantly following the recommendation of prosecutors and the defense attorney for a 25-year prison sentence for Chervenell.

While he considered giving her another five years, he followed the agreement, saying it’s unclear what more the sentence would accomplish for the 49-year old woman.

Chervenell seemed to choke back tears as she told the judge she didn’t want to speak before she was sentenced.

Her attorney Shelley Ajax said her client had wanted to plead guilty early on in the case but other issues delayed that.

“She immediately was remorseful. She took responsibility,” Ajax said. “This has been a sad case for everybody involved. ... She understands this isn’t about her, it’s about Kathleen. It was a very horrible traumatic thing and she wishes she could take it back.”

Chervenell-Brinson’s father, sister and son asked for justice for the woman who suffered years of abuse at the hands of her partner.

Her sister, Becky Marty, told the judge she learned about the abuse while helping Chervenell-Brinson file for a restraining order against Chervenell. When Marty learned about the extent of the problems, she said she was worried.

“She told me Chiloe had strangled her to the point of losing consciousness and when she came to, (Chiloe) was standing over her screaming at her to, “Stop faking it,’” Marty recalled. “She told me about Chiloe’s threats to kill her and how she knew people that could make Kathy disappear.”

“I looked at her aghast and told her she’d better take her seriously, especially since she had already strangled her once. She just shook her head and said, ‘Nah, she won’t try that again, because she knows she’ll lose the kids forever.’”

Violent relationship

Chervenell-Brinson met Chervenell while they were both going through an addiction recovery program. While police warned Chervenell-Brinson to stay away from her, Marty said that her sister always tried to see the good in people.

“She believed that she was really doing her best to get her life back on track,” Marty said. “Even though Chiloe ended up getting pregnant twice when she was supposed to be in a relationship with my sister, Kathy forgave her each time and fell in love with those babies.”

While she wasn’t related to them, Chervenell-Brinson treated the children like they were her own and became their primary caregiver.

According to court documents, Chervenell would often use that love to keep her partner quiet.

Even though Chervenell nearly strangled her to death once and had recently resumed physical attacks, it was the fact that she brought the children along when she was dealing drugs that prompted Chervenell-Brinson to get the restraining order, Marty said.

Marty said she felt relieved when her sister got a protection order in May that was supposed to keep Chervenell away from her and the children.

It’s not clear what brought Chervenell to the home in Mesa last August.

Investigators say her then 7-year-old son saw the deadly attack. Then, Chervenell hid her body underneath some bicycles and other items on the porch. She loaded the kids into Chervenell-Brinson’s Chevy Equinox and took the other woman’s phone.

When her then 9-year-old daughter was later interviewed by police, she said it felt like a kidnapping and that Chervenell was taking her “momma’s” phone, money and credit card.

As they were driving, one of the kids tried to call Chervenell-Brinson’s phone only to discover that it was in the car with them.

Arrest in Oregon

Chervenell called a friend along the way and admitted she went to Mesa to speak with Chervenell-Brinson and “didn’t know the power of her hands” and “killed her wife,” according to court documents.

That person called 911 and reported it. Police eventually tracked Chervenell-Brinson’s phone to Oregon, and as they were doing that they found her body.

Morrow County sheriff’s deputies found Chervenell and the children in the Equinox in Irrigon, Ore. She was arrested and the children were taken into custody.

Since the arrest, Chervenell has been barred from talking with the children, and they are now in foster care.

‘Life term’

Ajax said this case was more about attorneys maneuvering than her client wanting to avoid repercussions. Chervenell wanted to admit her guilt from the beginning of the case.

“She didn’t lie to me like a lot of my clients do. The first chance she had, she sat down and wrote it all out,” Ajax said.

She explained the sentence will see Chervenell leaving prison when she is in her mid-70s, making it effectively a life sentence.