An Ohio appellate court has affirmed the murder conviction of a Montgomery County man who fatally stabbed his neighbor’s boyfriend in 2024 following an argument over a piece of a motorcycle helmet.
Exco Kennedy will serve a mandatory 15 years to life in prison after the Second Appellate District Court upheld his original sentence. Kennedy had appealed his convictions for murder and aggravated possession of drugs, claiming he acted in self-defense.
The deadly confrontation took place on July 7, 2024. According to court documents, Kennedy became agitated after doing laundry at his next-door neighbor Stanley’s home and realizing that a piece of his motorcycle helmet lining was missing.
After multiple trips to Stanley’s house to demand the item and shout profanities, Kennedy returned home. He changed his clothes, put on motorcycle gloves, and strapped a nine-inch Amazon survival knife to his belt.
During his trial, Kennedy testified he wore the blade as a deterrent, telling the court, “nobody’s going to attack a tall black dude with a knife on his belt.”
Surveillance video showed Kennedy pacing the sidewalk between the houses for nearly five minutes, stretching his arms, and punching his fists together. He eventually yelled toward the residence for the victim, R.M., to “bring his punk ass outside so we can settle it.”
R.M. walked outside wearing only boxer shorts. Kennedy asked, “What’s going on [R.M.]?” and R.M. replied, “What’s the problem?”
Kennedy then asked if R.M. wanted to fight. A verbal argument ensued, and though R.M. encouraged Kennedy to hit him, Kennedy instead drew his survival knife and stabbed R.M. in the abdomen. Kennedy then pushed the injured man to the ground and punched him in the back of the head and neck eight times.
A neighbor across the street witnessed the attack, called 911, and took Kennedy’s knife, throwing it behind a fence for safety. When police arrived, Kennedy was on the ground with the victim, covered in blood, and admitted to the stabbing. Medical personnel later found a bag of methamphetamine hidden in Kennedy’s sock.
R.M. died the next morning at the hospital from sharp force trauma to the abdomen, despite multiple surgeries and massive blood transfusions.
Kennedy’s legal defense centered on the claim that R.M. was the initial aggressor. Kennedy alleged he was afraid of R.M. and took a bloody pocketknife away from him during the incident. However, video evidence showed R.M.’s hands were empty and by his sides before the stabbing. A pocketknife recovered at the scene was later identified by witnesses and video evidence as belonging to Kennedy.
The appeals court ruled that the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Kennedy was at fault for creating the violent situation and was not acting out of a legitimate fear of imminent death. The court dismissed all of Kennedy’s assignments of error, keeping his convictions and life sentence completely intact.
READ: 88-Year-Old Man Gets Life For Dismembering 3rd Victim After Promising He Was Done Killing
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