30 years prison given for Bridgeport murder
Stephanie Kenning, the daughter of Linda Kline, speaks to her mother’s murderer, Jimmy McDaniel, during his sentencing in Crawford County court Friday. Even McDaniel let out an audible cry during her victim-impact statement, as the rest of the people in the courtroom wiped away tears and hung their heads. Kenning sat a picture of her children next to her as she spoke to McDaniel about her pain in never seeing her mother again. (Photos by Correne Martin)
With the ashes of her two deceased daughters sitting in front of her, Colleen Munz addressed Jimmy McDaniel during his sentencing for the first-degree reckless homicide of Linda Kline (right picture). She reminded him that the ashes are all she has left of Linda and her other daughter, Michelle Little. Munz also blames McDaniel for Little’s heartbreak and anxiety and ensuing death after the loss of Kline.
Being sentenced for murdering his girlfriend and then staging her suicidal hanging, Jimmy McDaniel shows some emotion in court. He said he knows what it feels like to lose someone dear, since he lost his beloved mother years ago. He maintained that he did not take the life of Linda Kline because he loved her.
Jimmy McDaniel asserts that he and his deceased girlfriend, Linda Kline, loved each other. "You tell me I'm gonna come here and take her life? No, it's not true," he said during his sentencing Friday.
Dennis Munz, the brother of Linda Kline, spoke some harsh words directly to Jimmy McDaniel. He even alluded to his belief that McDaniel attempted to take Kline's life in a previous four-wheeler incident, which allegedly left Kline severely injured but McDaniel uninjured and the four-wheeler minimally damaged.
Crawford County Judge Lynn Rider discusses the basis of her sentence for Jimmy McDaniel, 40 years in prison—30 years of initial confinement and with 10 years extended supervision. He faced a maximum of 66 years in prison.
By Correne Martin
No more Mother’s Days. No more pictures. No more laughs. No more memories.
Linda Kline will not experience any more days as a mother, grandmother, daughter or sister, since the life was strangled from her body on Oct. 4, 2016, by her boyfriend Jimmy McDaniel outside a house where they were staying in Bridgeport.
Kline’s daughter, Stephanie Kenning, detailed her personal grief during McDaniel’s sentencing hearing in Crawford County court Friday. She said she’s battled depression and anxiety for the “458 days” since her mother’s murder and was even hospitalized for trying to take her own life.
“The wounds are deep and the pain will never go away,” Kenning said, staring infuriatedly into the eyes of McDaniel. “I want you to see the pain in my eyes and hear the pain in my voice. I want the words I’ve spoken here, the words my mom spoke to you the night you were beating and choking her to death, to live with you for the rest of your life.”
Found guilty Nov. 13 of first-degree reckless homicide, strangulation and suffocation, McDaniel was sentenced Friday afternoon to 40 years in prison for taking Kline’s life—30 years of initial confinement and with 10 years extended supervision. He faced a maximum of 66 years in prison.
District Attorney Tim Baxter had requested 40 years in prison with 10 years of supervision. Public defender Jeff Erickson did not enter a suggested sentence, based upon his client’s request, as McDaniel stated he just wanted the judge to “send me home with my family and let me be with my wife and kids.”
McDaniel spoke for an hour in court Friday, often shaking his head while speaking, and sniffling and breathing abnormally fast. He apologized to Kline’s family, yet blamed the officers for lying during testimony and his attorney’s office for not being “equipped to handle a murder trial.” He also explained the way he was raised a poor country boy, by a single mom, with respect for his elders, and talked about his military time and marriage that remained pieced together for his children.
Most relevantly, he maintained his innocence throughout.
“I can’t show you remorse because I didn’t do anything,” McDaniel shouted. “I didn’t take Linda’s life.
“I’m fine with what’s gonna happen to me because I’m gonna have no control over it.”
All the while McDaniel spoke, Kenning sat in the front row of the courtroom holding a large framed photo of her children—five of Kline’s 13 grandchildren.
“Contrary to what you said in trial, she had so many people who loved her,” Kenning said during her moment addressing McDaniel. “She will miss everything in her grandchildren’s lives as they grow up. How do you explain to an 11-, 9-, 7-, 6- and 3-year-old why you did this?”
She left McDaniel with a personal request to write an apology to her and her children. “I really wish, for just one minute, you can experience the pain we feel.”
Kline’s brother and mother, Dennis and Colleen Munz, also expressed their hatred toward McDaniel for his crime.
“I don’t understand why you had to kill her. For you to beat her to death so severely, strangle her and watch the life go out of her,” Dennis Munz chastised. “For you to say she wanted to commit suicide; I know my sister, she would never do that. I believe she was drugged. I believe there were other attempts on her life. I believe she wanted to end it with you, not end it all.”
Munz also shared his belief of what happened the night of Kline’s murder.
“I believe you went upstairs to get a pill (from Kline’s sister) and [Linda] was already gone. I think you flushed the pill down the toilet. Then you called your son to take a plane ride home,” he continued. “I hope you look into [Linda’s] eyes every single night and you are not able to sleep. If there was the death penalty, I would not want it, because I want you to think about this for the rest of your life. All you had to do is walk out that door and never come back.”
When Colleen Munz shared her victim-impact statement in court Friday, she sat the ashes of both Kline and her other daughter, Michelle Little, in front of her. Little passed away almost a year to the day that Kline was killed at Little’s Bridgeport home where they were all living in October 2016. The mourning mom is certain Little died due to the heartbreak and anxiety she experienced from losing her sister and because of the anticipation of testifying at McDaniel’s trial.
Munz added that her daughter’s killer doesn’t “deserve to be out free.”
D.A. Baxter followed the comments of Kline’s family by reminding Judge Lynn Rider how Kline died: “[The state pathologist who performed Kline’s autopsy] testified, it takes seconds to cut off circulation and pass out. But it takes minutes ... minutes to die from strangulation, and that’s how she died.”
According to police records and expert testimony of what happened Oct. 4, 2016, McDaniel strangled Kline in the basement of Little’s home and then staged her suicidal hanging from a T-post in the back yard.
Baxter also referred to reports from two individuals who’ve evaluated McDaniel throughout this ordeal, and one considered the man a “pleasant person as long as he’s controlling the situation.” Baxter agreed with another of the statements that McDaniel didn’t truly love Kline, that “it was more of ownership than love.”
“I truly think that’s exactly what happened,” he concluded.
When Rider gave the basis of her sentence, she acknowledged Attorney Erickson’s earlier comments that McDaniel’s prior record was clean of any domestic violence and only contained a couple OWI offenses. However, she said his offense was still a Class B felony and that she gave “very little weight” to other considerations than the gravity of his crime’s nature and protection of the public from him.
She addressed McDaniel: “The evidence doesn’t support your story. The version you gave is totally incredible.
“You did not tell us what really happened, which was blunt force trauma to the head. The expert from the state said she could not have been hanged. Never in the defense expert’s testimony did he say she died of suicide. The bottom line is she didn’t die of a hanging; the post could not hold her weight.
“You had an agenda of what you wanted to tell us (today). I find it troubling you point the blame pretty much every direction but at yourself.”
In addition to the 40 years for first-degree reckless homicide, the judge gave McDaniel a concurrent sentence of five years in prison—two years of initial confinement with three years supervision—for the charge of strangulation and suffocation.
