Snapchat videos seen by jury change Ohio man's mind, pleads guilty midtrial
After a Franklin County jury watched 90 Snapchat videos, more than 70 of which showed the brutal beating of a man, the man responsible for the assault decided Thursday morning to plead guilty to all of the murder charges against him before the trial was finished.
The Common Pleas Court jury in the case had heard two days of testimony and began viewing the videos posted by 35-year-old Timothy Kendrick on Wednesday afternoon.
Kendrick changed his plea from not guilty to guilty Thursday morning to aggravated murder, murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse in the brutal July 16, 2021, death of 30-year-old Drew Mendelbaum. Kendrick will be sentenced in July.
Mendelbaum's beaten and burnt body was found the next day outside an office suite on Sawmill Road. An autopsy report showed Mendelbaum had more than 40 knife wounds, including having his throat slashed.
Previous coverage: Accused killer who posted videos of fatal attack on Snapchat set for Monday trial
Jury views videos from Snapchat that Timothy Kendrick posted
On Wednesday, the jury viewed videos from Snapchat that Kendrick posted of his assault on Mendelbaum. The videos were recorded between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on July 16, 2021.
Columbus police homicide Det. Terry Kelley testified Wednesday that Kendrick's family members, who had seen the videos posted on Kendrick's Snapchat account with the display name "Bleyk Diablo Blanco European," had contacted him with concerns about what the videos showed.
Kelley said family members described the room seen in the Snapchat videos as matching the room at the InTown Suites on Bethel Road where Kendrick had been staying.
In the videos shown to the jury, Mendelbaum is seen with blood on both sides of his face and the left side of his face becoming more swollen. Kendrick stands over Mendelbaum, yelling at him, holding a knife to his throat and repeatedly threatening to kill Mendelbaum.
The videos show Kendrick making statements that he would "slice (Mendelbaum) open" and that Kendrick was the "king of Columbus." The 10-second video clips also show Mendelbaum being given a bag of frozen food and what appears to be a towel or shirt to put on the blood at one point.
In one video, Kendrick tells Mendelbaum "we're done" repeatedly, and gives Mendelbaum a fist bump. The very next posting shows Kendrick yelling at Mendelbaum that he "(expletive) up."
"I'm the king of the 614. Here's an example of what happens," Kendrick says.
Related article: Judge denies bond for suspect accused of posting videos of Columbus homicide on Snapchat
What other video clips show
Another video clip shows Mendelbaum, blood-covered and with a swollen face, telling Kendrick that the two should just go and smoke a cigarette together. Kendrick responds "I'll kill your f---ing (expletive) bro."
Other video clips show Mendelbaum, clearly unconscious, lying on the floor while Kendrick brags about knocking him out, calling Mendelbaum a "goddamn loser." Kendrick flips the camera and shows himself during several of the videos.
Jurors also watched a video of Kendrick's interview with Columbus police homicide detectives after his arrest. During the interview, Kendrick denied having ever met Mendelbaum and said he never killed anybody.
"It’s really absurd. I can’t believe you guys think I killed someone," Kendrick said. "I didn’t kill that man, for real. I’m not the killing type of guy. I’m more of a lover than a fighter."
Prosecutors said there were more than 150 Snapchat videos in total collected from Kendrick's account, most of which had shown Kendrick's assault on Mendelbaum.
Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Cory Helffrich said Snapchat videos that the jury had not yet seen showed Kendrick stomping on Mendelbaum's unconscious body, gloating in the mirror about what he had done and cleaning up the scene.
Jurors also viewed videos from the InTown Suites showing Kendrick and Mendelbaum walking into Kendrick's room, after meeting less than an hour earlier at a nearby gas station, and only Kendrick leaving. Kendrick is also seen on hotel surveillance video taking a grocery cart with a large item wrapped in black fabric from the room around 5:50 a.m. on July 17, 2021.
Mendelbaum's body had been found several hours later and about a block away, wrapped in a black fabric.
Kendrick faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Snapchat videos lead Timothy Kendrick to plead guilty to murder midtrial
