Man Who Murdered Grandma With A Piggy Bank, Beheaded Her Gets Life Imprisonment

A man in Michigan was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after he fatally beat his 79-year-old step-grandmother with a piggy bank and beheaded her early last year.

Kenny Wayne McBride, 45, was handed a sentence of life without parole by 38th Circuit Court Judge Michael A. Weipert for the February 2020 murder of Cecilia Gibson, WTOL 11 reported. The Monroe County man will also receive 114 to 480 months for mutilating Gibson's corpse.

Evidence showed that McBride became enraged and beat Gibson to death using a ceramic piggy bank and a metal child-gate on Feb. 16 last year after the two got into an argument regarding McBride's children — all but one of whom he had ignored for years, according to trial testimony.

The elderly woman suffered massive head trauma after being struck a minimum of 19 separate times.

McBride then used three different knives to cut off Gibson's head and carried it through the Temperance house they lived in before he threw it into the yard, according to the report.

Authorities learned of the incident when McBride's father, Kenneth Reece, returned home on the morning of Feb. 17 and found Gibson's body and significant amounts of blood in the living room.

Reece called 911 following the discovery, and responding deputies of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office found Gibson's dismembered body and clear signs of a violent and bloody struggle.

Investigators also found McBride's bloody jeans, the knives, as well as cut-up photographs of all of McBride's children, except for the child with whom he had maintained a relationship.

McBride, who had started living with his step-grandmother and father about six weeks earlier, claimed he did not know what happened despite being the only other person in the home at the time of the incident, a report by Fox 2 Detroit said.

He was, however, linked to the murder through his bloody jeans, DNA, cellular telephone records and fingerprint evidence.

McBride also suffered injuries to his hands and head that reflected a physical struggle, but he claimed they were acquired from fixing his car. Evidence, however, showed that he had paid someone to replace his car battery earlier in the day.

He also claimed during testimony that Gibson may have been killed by someone he owed money to, but Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Allison Arnold debunked his claim.

Additionally, Arnold said that McBride never mentioned the claim before and noted that if a different person had killed Gibson, they would not have entered the home with four cars in the driveway.

Judge Weipert called McBride's case one of the worst crimes the court has ever seen and described the latter's actions as being "pure evil," as per WTOL 11.

McBride was also charged as a habitual offender - fourth offense due to three prior felony convictions.

"Even though capital punishment is not accepted in Michigan, I expect him to spend the rest of his life hopefully suffering like the rest of us have," Billy Gibson, another son of Cecilia, said during the sentencing.