Prosecutors and defense attorneys delivered opening statements and showed evidence Thursday in the case of Cohen “Vinn” Heath, accused of demanding her transgender partner to murder his mother in April 2020.

After two days of jury selection, prosecutors with the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office and defense attorneys for Heath laid out in opening statements their accounts of what happened the night of April 28, 2020, when COVID-19 nurse Bridget Kenner was murdered by her transgender son Kenny Kenner, once Emma, before hearing testimony and presenting evidence in the case.

Kenner, 18, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in an agreement with prosecutors and was sentenced to 40 years in prison in January. As part of the agreement, Kenner gave a statement to investigators about what happened the night of the murder.

Heath, 21, is charged with first-degree murder under the complicity doctrine, which holds people who help to commit or encourage crimes accountable for them, along with several other crimes including felony murder, two tampering charges, and robbery. Heath, a transgender woman, also goes by Vinn.

Police found Bridget Kenner, 44, dead on April 28, 2020, in her home in the 8000 block of Fallgold Court, on a welfare check after she didn’t show up for work at St. Francis Hospital. Heath and Kenny Kenner were detained hours later close to a 7-Eleven around Dublin Boulevard and Marksheffel Road. All three lived in the home at the time.

Heath is accused by the district attorney’s office of demanding that Kenny Kenner kill his mother, in part to steal her possessions and possibly sell them, with prosecutor Ben Hostetter saying that Heath told Kenner the night of the murder she wanted to “wake up to her screaming,” referring to Bridget Kenner.

“If you really want to prove you’re a man, you will do this,” Hostetter said Heath allegedly told Kenny Kenner.

Defense attorneys in their opening statements said that Kenny Kenner made the decision to stab his mother twice in the chest, instructed Heath to engage in acts after the fact, and admitted later on. They said that Heath was not involved in the planning or commission of the murder, adding she had “nothing to gain” from it.

“This is an American tragedy, a horror story, a catastrophic failure on all levels,” defense attorney Tracey Eubanks said, saying Bridget Kenner had “moved on” and referencing plans she had begun to make with her boyfriend to move to Florida without Kenny Kenner, which ultimately “led to matricide.”

Also included in the charges against Heath is tampering with a deceased human body, which Hostetter said stemmed from what happened after Bridget Kenner was killed — namely, that when Heath saw that Kenny Kenner had killed his mother, Heath allegedly proceeded to engage in necrophilia.

“That was the plan,” Hostetter said in explaining the charge during opening statements.

A video and photos depicting the acts were shown on Wednesday afternoon after opening statements by prosecutors to prove the tampering charge. Colorado Springs Det. Matthew Kerr, who investigated the case, identified the individual perpetrating those acts as Heath after it was shown.

Heath has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, the felony murder charge, two tampering charges including another one involving destroying physical evidence, and robbery.

Cohen “Vinn” Heath, 21.

Courtesy of Colorado Springs Police Department