Macon Ga. - A 58-year-old man will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars after admitting to a spate of horrific felonies, including raping and killing a 49-year-old woman with his bare hands, then sexually assaulting her again following her death.
Kenny Obryan Whitehead on Monday (6/17/23) formally pleaded guilty to one count each of malice murder, rape, and necrophilia in the 2020 death of Teresa Ponder, authorities announced. Whitehead entered the guilty plea early Tuesday morning, just hours before his criminal trial was scheduled to begin.
A state judge ordered him to serve two life sentences on both the malice murder charge and the rape charge, as well as 10 years on the necrophilia charge. The sentences run concurrently, meaning they will be served at the same time. Based on the sentences, Whitehead will not be eligible for parole for at least 30 years, when he is 88 years old.
The abhorrent incident took place on the night of May 17, 2020 at the Daybreak Day Resource Center and Ministry located in the 100 block of Walnut Street in Macon, Georgia. Macon is about 80 miles southeast of Atlanta.
According to a press release from the Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, Ponder was an homeless person who spent most of her life “living in the streets.” Still hoping to afford herself some kind of protection, prosecutors said Ponder “felt safer” when sleeping on the steps of the Daybreak Center, where she knew the building had security cameras that constantly monitored the area.
However, the presence of the cameras did not stop Whitehead from attacking Ponder just before sunrise.
“Video surveillance showed that Whitehead followed her to that location and initiated a sexual assault on her,” prosecutors wrote in the release. “Ponder struggled with Whitehead, resisting the sexual attack. During the struggle, Ponder was asphyxiated. She was sexually assaulted by Whitehead both before and after her death.”
Prosecutors noted that deputies with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene of the attack where they found Whitehead, catching him “actively sexually assaulting the body of Ponder.” The responding deputies immediately intervened and took Whitehead into custody.
Deputies initially believed they were responding to a call regarding two people having sex on the front steps of the resource center, while asking Whitehead to get dressed, officers were shocked to find Ponder unresponsive, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Upon evaluation of Ponder, emergency medical services personnel reportedly determined that she had “been deceased for some time.”
In addition to being caught in the act of sexually assaulting Ponder’s dead body, DNA evidence recovered from the scene of the attack “definitively identified Whitehead” as the sexual assailant, the release states.
“This is a tragic case, illuminating the risks of people who are unhoused,” said Anita Howard, Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney. “Thanks to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Deputies and the prosecution team on this case, Mr. Whitehead won’t be on the streets hurting anyone again.”
