52-year-old Kenny Hamner made his first appearance in court Wednesday morning. The St. Lucie County man is charged with murdering his own mother with a machete in December.
It was a shocking turn of events after he originally told deputies that he was also attacked that day.
He described their attacker as a Hispanic man with a large knife.
Nearly one month later, on Tuesday, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara announced that was a lie.
The Sheriff said it was Kenny who was the killer that day and that he stabbed himself to try and throw off the investigation.
In that news conference, Sheriff Mascara would only said it was DNA and trace evidence that connected Kenny to the crime.
But what was that evidence led investigators back to Kenny? Prosecutors want to keep that information sealed for now.
Prosecutors filed a motion giving the judge three reasons for their request:
1) The investigation is still ongoing and will continue for some time.
2) There is forensic evidence pending in this matter.
3) There are several witnesses in this case who will be required to appear before a grand jury and prosecutors want protect their identities until then.
On Tuesday, the judge granted the state’s request.
