Mother Of Murder Suspect's Baby Comes To His Defense

The man accused of stabbing a bookstore owner and setting the shop on fire makes his first court appearance.

Kenton Busby politely answered the judge's questions during a short video arraignment. The 42-year old is accused of stabbing Penn Books owner Kelly Hays several times September 14th then setting the shop on fire. 

On Monday, police released a video of a person they wanted to question. Busby recognized himself and turned himself in. Court papers show Busby made several statements to police, but did not admit to being involved in the murder of the victim.

Jessica, who asked us not to use her last name, is the mother of Busby's 4-year-old daughter. She says she tried to talk him out of turning himself in. 

"I told him, 'You know, if you want you can get an attorney and then talk to police. But don't talk to them without an attorney, especially if you're innocent.' He didn't listen to me."

Jessica says Busby wanted to clear his name. "I'm the mother of his child and I don't believe he would do something like that. Ever"

But Busby does have a violent criminal history that includes rape, kidnapping and assault. And just three months ago, Jessica filed a victim's protection order against him. 

"I told him that if he did not stop texting me and stuff like that...it kind of scared me a little bit so yeah I filed a VPO," she explained. 

But with that violent history, we asked why people should believe Busby is innocent of killing Hays. 

"I don't know how to answer that question,” she said. “All I gotta say is that I'm one of Ken's best friends. One of his only best friends. And he would not come to me and tell me that he didn't do it if he did not do it."