Left inset: Devin Joel (Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office). Right inset: Kacy Joel (KAKE). Background: Police at the Kansas home of Kacy Joel after she was murdered by her son Devin Joel (KAKE/YouTube).
A Kansas man was handed a life sentence on Friday for beating his mother to death with a "landscaping brick" — telling her, "Mom, stay down" — while calling police and filming her battered body on Snapchat and FaceTime, according to court documents.
"I'm a killer," Devin Joel told a neighbor after the 2023 killing of Kacy Joel, according to a probable cause affidavit. The 24-year-old was sentenced to life in prison on Friday in Sedgwick County with the possibility of parole after 25 years for first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery.
Joel's sister spoke at his sentencing hearing about the trauma she's experienced as a result of his actions, telling the court, "I constantly cry about how terrified she must have been," in reference to their mother.
"How helpless she must have felt, and how heartbroken she must have been," the sister said, according to local CBS affiliate KWCH. "What was going through her head, and probably wondering why the little boy she raised and loved was violently attacking her."
Police responded to Kacy Joel's home in Wichita on May 30, 2023, after receiving a 911 call from Devin Joel stating that he "tried to kill his mom and that he was beating her head with a brick," the affidavit says.
"The 911 call taker heard the male saying, 'Mom, stay down,'" according to the affidavit. "The 911 dispatchers could hear a woman crying and screaming in the background. The male said his mom was still breathing and that he was going to cut her tendon."
Devin Joel later said that his mom was "brain dead, paralyzed, had stopped breathing and was dead." He also reported that he was armed with a knife and threatened to attack officers when they arrived.
Devin Joel fled from the home after the slaying and went to a nearby residence, where he barged in through the front door. He had "blood on his face and was holding a knife," according to the affidavit.
Devin Joel made the comment about being "a killer" before darting out of the resident's home. He also visited a local business with the knife but left without incident.
Officers arrested Devin Joel, who was "covered in blood," after seeing him running in the area, the affidavit says. "He said he had stabbed his mother and that the blood on him was not his," according to police. "While Devin was saying this, he appeared calm and was even smiling while discussing stabbing his mother."
When police went to Kacy Joel's home, they found the 46-year-old in the backyard in a large pool of blood, on a concrete patio. A portion of her skull with hair attached was "among the blood," along with "two human teeth." The landscaping brick that Devin Joel used was broken in two and nearby, with footprints and handprints visible in the blood.
Kacy Joel was transported to a local hospital and medical staff "worked on her" before she eventually died. Devin Joel's sister later spoke with police investigators and told them that he called her after the murder over FaceTime and "asked if she wanted to see her mother," according to the affidavit.
"When she said she did, Devin turned the video to show their mother on the ground in a large pool of blood and obviously injured," the affidavit says. "She later observed a video posted to her mother's Snapchat account [showing] Devin and then their mother on the ground in a pool of blood."
According to police, Devin Joel took selfie videos with his mother in which he appeared to be talking into the camera, but there was no audio. "His face is covered in blood [on the video]," the affidavit notes.
Joel's family told police that he was having mental issues leading up to his mother's murder that included "violent and angry hallucinations and general odd behavior." He was found competent to stand trial before entering a guilty plea last year.
Comments