Family feud turned deadly when woman shot neighbor in chest
By Samantha Murphy, Court TV
Not Parodied or Modified!
Fri Oct 28, 5:40 PM ET
(Court TV) — Police say an ongoing family feud between Tennessee neighbors started with name-calling and empty threats but ended in murder.
Gillian Kennedy, 35, is accused of shooting neighbor Kenneth "Rooster" Cantrell, 38, on the front lawn of their Pegram, Tenn., home following a spat with the victim's wife Tosha, who called the defendant a "Jenny Craig reject" and a "whale."
Kennedy, who pleaded not guilty, will be tried on second-degree murder and 12 aggravated assault charges Monday at the Cheatham County Courthouse.
On May 21, 2004, Mrs. Kennedy allegedly stood outside in her bathing suit, rubbed her breasts, and yelled at Mrs. Cantrell that she was jealous of her large chest.
Mrs. Cantrell yelled back insults to Mrs. Kennedy, who then pulled down her bathing suit and flashed her neighbor and some of the Cantrell children, according to police.
When Kenneth Cantrell came home that night and heard what happened, he marched across the lawn toward the Kennedy house, according to neighbor Ron Richardson.
"Mr. Cantrell said he was going to whip Mr. Kennedy in the a-double-s if the harassment didn't stop," Richardson told Courttv.com. "I couldn't get a clear view of who grabbed who first, but before I knew it, both men were outside rolling around on the ground beating each other up."
Richardson said Mrs. Kennedy came out moments later and fired a shot into Mr. Cantrell's chest.
"She then pointed the gun at me and started swinging it around while cursing," Richardson said. "She said something like, 'If you don't get the f--- off my yard, I will f---ing kill you."
"I was terrified. I couldn't move," Richardson said.
Richardson said there were about eight to 10 witnesses, including children from both families.
Mrs. Kennedy's attorney Jake Lockert, however, said the woman acted in her husband's defense.
"Mr. Cantrell would have beaten her husband to death if she didn't intervene," Lockert said. "When Gillian went out there with the gun, Tosha jerked it, and that's when it fired. Had she wanted to kill Mr. Cantrell, she would have just went up and shot him, but she actually accidentally shot her husband through both hands first."
After the incident, members of the close-knit community gathered at the scene. Mrs. Cantrell picked up a nearby baseball bat and bashed in the windows of a car parked in the Kennedys' driveway.
She was later charged with vandalism and criminal trespassing and was placed in a jail cell just a few feet from Mrs. Kennedy.
Trouble brewing
Although neighbors say Mrs. Kennedy frequently harassed them, Lockert said the defendant felt alienated and attacked by the townspeople on a daily basis.
"They would cluck like chickens outside their home," Lockert said. "Someone once asked the pizza delivery boy if there were chicken feathers on the pizza because he was delivering to a bunch of chicken sh---."
Lockert said someone once fired a rifle into the Kennedy's backyard pool and that a paintball was splattered on the home's exterior.
"Mr. Richardson would be out in the yard yelling over threats, and sometimes Mr. Cantrell even followed Mr. Kennedy to work," Lockert said. "It's hard to believe a bunch of neighbors would act like this, but we have it all on video."
The Kennedy-Cantrell feud began just a few weeks after the Cantrells relocated from their old neighborhood, Kingston Springs, after their house burned down.
At about 2:30 a.m. one night, police received a call that Mrs. Kennedy and her father were stealing basketballs and a net outside the Cantrells' home.
"They didn't want the neighborhood kids playing near their house, so they stole the basket and the ball and they even had the light removed," Richardson said. "They were dressed in all black and looked like ninjas with hoods."
But Lockert denied the charge.
"The neighbors just keep on making false accusations," he said. "Gillian is an active member in the church and Chris is a civil activist. Why would they steal a basketball?"
During a bond hearing testimony in May 2004, Mrs. Cantrell said she was warned about the Kennedys before they moved in, but she didn't want to believe everything she heard.
"I thought they deserved a chance, and things were okay for awhile," she testified.
Cantrell admitted that she became angry after Mrs. Kennedy exposed a breast to her and neighborhood children.
"I did call her a 'Jenny Craig reject' and a 'whale' ... I was just so mad, I wanted her to go away," she said.
According to Richardson, who also testified, one of the Kennedys' three children told the judge that their mother shot Mr. Cantrell while their father held him down.
Prosecutor Jerry Harris said he could not comment on the case, but said the community has been pretty shaken up since the murder.
Although she awaits her trial in a jail in a nearby state, Mrs. Kennedy feels justified in protecting her husband, Lockert said.
"She is upset because someone lost their life and that it reached that point, but she wasn't planning on hurting him," Lockert said. "If Tosha didn't grab the gun, this wouldn't have happened."
After the shooting, both the Kennedys and Cantrells moved out of the neighborhood.
The trial is expected to last a week.
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