Former Playboy bunny pleads guilty to 2nd degree murder in death of psychiatrist

Former model and Playboy bunny Kelsey Turner, 29, has pleaded guilty to 2nd degree murder in connection with the death of Dr. Thomas Burchard, 71, who worked as a psychiatrist and was killed in 2019.

Turner entered an Alford Plea, which means that Turner was allowed to assert her innocence, but also acknowledge that there was enough evidence in place to return a guilty verdict.

Authorities confirmed that Burchard traveled to Las Vegas in March 2019 to visit Turner, the two reportedly had an intimate relationship. Burchard’s longtime girlfriend, Judy Earp, told the Review-Journal that he had paid for Turner’s rent in Las Vegas and California.

FOX 13 Las Vegas reported that Burchard was paying a total of $300,000 per year to Turner.

Turner and her boyfriend Jon Kennison are accused of beating Burchard with a baseball bat and hiding his body in the trunk of Turner’s Mercedes.  Their roommate, Diana Pena, was charged as an accessory.

In July, Kennison was sentenced to a maximum of 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon along with conspiracy to commit murder.

Diana Pena, who pled guilty to being an accessory to murder in June 2019, previously testified to a grand jury that she witnessed Kennison swing a bat at Burchard at their home.

Pena alleged that Turner became furious with images and messages she found on Burchard’s phone.

Turner and Kennison were going to take Burchard to a hospital after he was hit with the bat, but Turner reportedly changed her mind and demanded her boyfriend “knock Thomas out,” Pena testified. She later testified that she saw Kennison covered in blood.

Kennison’s attorneys argued that his attack on Burchard was a “crime of passion,” and they put the attack down to Turner being “master manipulator he could not rebuff.”

Turner is scheduled to be sentenced on January 10th.