Patrick Frazee’s accomplice gets three years for tampering with evidence

A former nurse who pleaded guilty to helping a Colorado man cover up the murder of his fiancée has received the maximum sentence.

Krystal Lee Kenney was ordered Tuesday to spend three years in prison, said Jon Sarche, a spokesman with the Colorado Judicial Branch.

After prison she must serve one year of parole, Sarche said.

Kenney had agreed to plead guilty to one count of tampering with physical evidence and then testified against Patrick Frazee nearly a year ago in his first-degree murder trial.

Kenney told the court she was in a relationship with Frazee, who was convicted in November of killing Kelsey Berreth and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Frazee appealed his case earlier this year, according to Teller County court records.

Kenney, who lived in Idaho, said she disposed of Berreth’s phone after the woman’s disappearance.

Kenney apologized in court Tuesday, saying, “I’m sorry that I did not save Kelsey,” according to CNN affiliate KMGH.

District Attorney Dan May told KMGH, “This is probably the most emotional case I have ever been involved in.”

According to the Denver-based station, Dru Nielsen, who represented Kenney, said in court Tuesday that her client was manipulated by Frazee.

She said Kenney is a genuinely good and moral person. Frazee instilled fear in her, the attorney told the judge.

“As we know, rational good decisions are not made when a person is acting out of fear,” she said, according to KMGH.