Former model pleads guilty in California doctor’s killing

A former model accused of killing a California psychiatrist with her boyfriend in 2019 has pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge.

Kelsey Turner, 29, was one of three people charged and the last to plead guilty in connection with 71-year-old Thomas Burchard’s death. Turner entered what is known as an Alford plea, meaning she only admitted that prosecutors had enough evidence to prove her guilt, according to the guilty plea agreement filed Nov. 9.

Turner’s defense attorney, Ashley Sisolak, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Police have said Burchard traveled to Las Vegas at the beginning of March 2019 to visit Turner, with whom he had an intimate relationship. Burchard’s longtime girlfriend, Judy Earp, has told the Review-Journal that he had paid for Turner’s rent in Las Vegas and California.

Turner’s Facebook and Instagram accounts at the time of her arrest in 2019 identified her as a model who had appeared in magazines such as Playboy Italia and Maxim.

In July, Turner’s boyfriend, 30-year-old Jon “Logan” Kennison, was sentenced to a maximum of 45 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder.

Diana Pena, who pleaded guilty in June 2019 to accessory to murder, previously testified to a grand jury that she watched Kennison swing a bat at Burchard at their home in the southeast valley.

Pena, who was roommates with Kennison and Turner, testified that Turner had become upset with Burchard over images and messages she found on the doctor’s phone.

Turner and Kennison had initially planned to take Burchard to a hospital after he was struck with the bat, but later Turner began demanding her boyfriend “knock Thomas out,” Pena testified. She later testified that she saw Kennison covered in blood.

Kennison’s attorneys have written in court documents that his attack on Burchard was a “crime of passion,” and they accused Turner of being a “master manipulator he could not rebuff.”

The psychiatrist’s body and a baseball bat were found on March 7, 2019, in the trunk of Turner’s abandoned Mercedes-Benz C300 east of Las Vegas.

A sentencing hearing for Pena has not been set following her guilty plea three years ago, although she is scheduled to appear in court again in December, court records show.

Turner is set to appear in court for a sentencing hearing on Jan. 10.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.