On the cold night of December 8, 2023, gunshots broke the quiet of a neighborhood in Spokane, Washington. Police responded to the area near East Cleveland Avenue and North Cuba Street shortly after 11 p.m. and discovered two people deceased. Inside a parked van, they found Colton Russell, a 37-year-old White man. Nearby in the street was 23-year-old Kiara Morgan-Weiland.
A neighbor later told reporters he heard several gunshots and saw a woman calling for help as she fell.
An autopsy later determined that Mr. Russell had been shot six times, while Ms. Morgan-Weiland had been stabbed more than 50 times. The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled both deaths homicides, and the Spokane Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit launched an investigation. The inquiry soon revealed a grim connection to another recent death. Both Russell and Morgan-Weiland had been persons of interest in the disappearance of 49-year-old Jannell Martensen, Russell's ex-girlfriend. Martensen was last seen alive on November 19, 2023, with Russell and Morgan-Weiland, and her body was later found.
On December 16, police arrested 25-year-old Brandon L. Kenny and charged him with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Russell and Morgan-Weiland. According to court documents, Kenny confessed to the killings and provided a motive tied to Martensen’s death. He told detectives that Russell had admitted to accidentally killing Martensen and then, at gunpoint, forced Kenny to help him move her body. Kenny claimed he grew fearful that Russell believed he would report the crime to the police.
On the night of the murders, Kenny said he decided to kill Russell. After shooting Russell multiple times with a 9mm handgun, he attacked Morgan-Weiland with a pocket knife as she tried to flee, later telling police he wanted to make sure she was dead. A home surveillance camera in the area captured the brutal attacks.
In July 2026, Brandon L. Kenny pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Kiara Morgan-Weiland and the second-degree murder of Colton Russell. On September 4, 2026, a Spokane County Superior Court judge sentenced him to a total of 42 years in prison. The judge stated she considered Kenny’s young age at the time, his drug use, and the fact that he took responsibility for the killings when imposing the sentence. The case was officially closed as of that month.
