MURRAY – “Thank you, Jesus.” That is what the former caregiver who pleaded guilty to corpse abuse last month said in Calloway Circuit Court today as she walked away from the defendant’s podium after being sentenced to probation for five years.
Gwendolyn Penny, 68, of Murray, was indicted in April on one count of knowingly abusing and/or neglecting an adult in her care, a class C felony, and one count of abusing a corpse, a class D felony, after a Calloway County Sheriff’s Office deputy went to her Riviera Courts home to serve papers in an unrelated mater and, according to the uniform citation, found a deceased man in advanced stages of decomposition.
Murray Police Department Detective Justin Swope investigated the crime. Per the uniform citation, Penny told Swope that she thought the victim had been sleeping. She recounted that two weeks earlier, the victim told her he had “spoken to God and would be going through the process of ‘Going all the way down,’ which she explained was down to death.” The next day she found him unresponsive but did not notice that he had stopped breathing until three or four days later.
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“She said under any other circumstances,” Swope wrote, “she would have been concerned about his health and would have given him care, but this was the process and she had to trust in the Lord.”
Officers also found a journal in the home that documented the decomposition process and the changes to the victim’s body in detail.
“Evidence and statements show Gwendolyn observed a drastic change in the health and well being of the victim and made no effort to get him care,” Swope wrote. “… Gwendolyn made a conscious decision to ignore the health crisis the victim was suffering as part of a religious test which potentially caused the death of the victim due to lack of medical care.”
Ultimately, a deal was reached with prosecutors to dismiss the higher-level felony in exchange for a guilty plea on the corpse abuse charge, which was entered last month. Today, Penny’s counsel, Department of Public Advocacy attorney Victoria Wright, asked Calloway Circuit Judge Andrea Moore to consider probating her sentence.
“The more serious of the charges have been dismissed,” Wright said. “Regarding her abuse of corpse (charge), on the scale of severity, I do believe that is on the lesser end. She is requesting that you allow her to be supervised by probation and parole. She said that she will not disappoint you; she will not disappoint the Commonwealth either, so we are requesting that you allow her to be probated at this time.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney James Burkeen advised the court that he was not opposed to Penny being sentenced to probation but noted his motivations were more pragmatic, based on the length of her potential jail sentence and the amount of time she has already served – 203 days.
“Even if the court did impose the sentence, she would likely be paroled very soon,” Burkeen told Moore. “As far as I can tell, she’s never been arrested a day in her life – and I don’t mean to speak her age – but she’s 68 years old and this is a first-time offense, so we’re not (opposed to parole).”
“Ms. Penny, the Commonwealth’s not opposed to probation,” Moore said, “and I do understand you’ve never been in trouble up until this point in your life; however, the situation here was very serious, in my mind, very extreme. So, I want to make sure that you understand that going forward any kind of situation like this needs to immediately be reported to authorities. Do you understand? Immediately. In any type of situation you get in involving anybody who needs assistance or care, you need to contact authorities. You understand?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Penny said. With that, Moore accepted the Commonwealth’s recommendation and sentenced her to five years of probation. Penny will also be responsible for $6,564 in jail fees.
