Following the guilty verdicts found against his father in the 2021 murder of Stanley Bussell and Candace Marcel Thursday, Kendall Spikes was formally sentenced for his role in those events in Christian Circuit Court Friday morning.
Kendal Spikes had already pleaded guilty to complicity to tampering with physical evidence and hindering prosecution or apprehension, and that guilty plea came with the agreement that he would testify against his father, Bobby Spikes, at his double-murder trial. That trial concluded Thursday, so final sentencing for Kendall Spikes happened the next morning.
By testifying against Bobby Spikes, Kendall was set to have his sentence probated, but Judge John Atkins called that agreement into question, since it was revealed during trial that Kendall wasn’t entirely honest on the stand. Special prosecutor Blake Chambers says he wasn’t very happy with that, but it was ultimately the actions of a man that was placed in a position he should have never been in by his own father.
So, the agreement was upheld, with Judge Atkins sentencing Spikes to five-years of probation.
Kendall Spikes would follow his father into Trigg County, where Bobby Spikes would abandon Bussell’s vehicle, where Marcel’s body was inside, and then drive his father to several locations in Bowling Green, Princeton and then back to Hopkinsville the night of the murders. Kendall Spikes has maintained he did not know Marcell was in the vehicle.
But he would testify to know that his father had shot and killed Bussell before taking the vehicle to Cerulean Road. He would also lie to investigators when first being questioned about the incidents.
Bobby Spikes received two-life sentences along with his guilty verdicts.