After three years of marriage, the husband and killer of Kelly Burgess gets 15 years in prison.

In 2006, Kemmerer residents Ron and Kathy Davison’s daughter, Kelly, married Branden Burgess. They eventually moved to the Loveland, Colorado area where Kelly found a job working with disabled adults.

But on Oct. 6, 2009, Branden pressed a gun to Kelly’s head and fired, murdering his pregnant wife.

Since that day, 34-year-old Branden Burgess has claimed that the fatal shot was an accident. But law enforcement officials didn’t buy the claims, especially when autopsy reports proved that the barrel of the gun was pressed into Kelly’s forehead prior to the shot being fired.

Burgess was charged with second-degree murder and was set to go to trial in 8th Judicial District Court on July 27. But his defense attorneys made a plea deal in the courts, making Burgess admit to reckless manslaughter and possession of a weapon by a felon.

In the state of Colorado, the maximum sentence for manslaughter is 12 years. By pleading guilty to manslaughter, Burgess will receive the maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. And when that sentence is over, Burgess will serve an additional 3-year sentence for the weapons charges, totaling 15 years in a Colorado prison.

Parry Baldwin, Kelly Burgess’s sister, said that the family was “not really happy with the terms” of Branden Burgess’s sentence.

Currently Fred and Parry Baldwin have custody of the Burgess’s 3-year-old son.





For the complete article see the 07-22-2010 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 07-22-2010 paper.