Jury finds man not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, guilty of assault

UPDATE: A jury found Brian Kelley not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, but guilty of assault. The jury found Kelley guilty on two counts of fourth-degree domestic assault and one count of first-degree domestic assault.

The first-degree domestic assault conviction, which stems from his attack on his grandfather, carries a maximum 15 year sentence. The two misdemeanor assaults, connected to Kelley hurting his grandmother, have a maximum penalty of a year in the county jail.

Sentencing is scheduled to take place Friday morning, with the jury recommending a sentence. Judge Brouck Jacobs will ultimately decide the sentence.

Defense attorney Stephen Wyse said he was pleased that the jury acquitted Kelley of the conspiracy to commit murder charge. Kelley testified at trial that the conversation in which he and co-defendant Jared Bears discussed killing his grandparents was a fantasy.

“I think the jury was able to set aside the fantasy nature of those conversations and go, ‘No, there was never a conspiracy to murder the grandparents,'” Wyse said after the trial.

Kelley’s grandmother told ABC 17 News that while she and her husband love Kelley, she believes Kelley needs to be held accountable for his actions.

ORIGINAL: A jury began deliberations Thursday evening in the trial of a man charged with conspiring with a friend to kill his grandparents in Boone County.

The second day of Brian Kelley’s trial started with witness testimony and prosecutors reading Facebook messages between Kelley and alleged co-conspirator Jared Bears. Kelley is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and domestic assault in the alleged December 2017 plot.

The messages read Thursday appear to describe Kelley’s plot to kill his grandparents, but Kelley later took the stand and said they were part of a “fantasy” he and Bears shared..

During the conversation, Bears tells Kelley to take the grandparents’ car, ammunition and guns and to put the grandparents’ bodies in the basement. Kelley wrote the messages as if he had already killed his grandparents, including references to snapping their necks.

“I might be a mess for doing that to my own flesh and blood but it was for the cause,” Kelley wrote in one of the messages.

Kelley, who took the stand Thursday afternoon, said he met Bears while staying at a psychiatric care center at age 16.

“We played out a lot of dreams we had,” Kelley said. “Things we felt made life more interesting to imagine.”

During his testimony, Kelley said he and Bears lived in “more of a fantasy than a reality” when they were together.

Kelley said the conversation with Bears that described killing his grandparents was part of a “fantasy” and he never intended to kill them.

Kelley’s grandparents testified Wednesday, saying they believed the attack was premeditated. Authorities say Kelley attacked his grandparents but they fought him off with the help of wasp spray.

Bears, who had been arrested and charged, is now wanted after he removed his GPS tracking device. His whereabouts are not known.