Kenneth Lee Boyd was sentenced to death July 14, 1994, in Rockingham County Superior Court for the March 1988 shooting deaths of his estranged wife Julie Curry Boyd and her father Thomas Dillard Curry. The shootings were committed in the presence of his own children, then ages 13, 12 and 10, as well as other witnesses, all of whom testified against Boyd at trial.

According to family members, Julie had endured an extremely stormy marriage for 13 years before finally leaving Boyd and moving herself and her children in with her father. Boyd repeated [sic] stalked Julie, once handing one of their sons a bullet and a note to give his mother that said the bullet was intended for her.

On March 4, 1988 Boyd drove around with his boys, telling them he was going to go and kill everyone at his father-in-law's home. When they arrived, he entered the home and shot and killed both his wife and her father with a .357 Magnum pistol. One of Julie's sons was pinned under his mother's body as Boyd continued to fired [sic] at her. The child scrambled out from beneath his mom's body and wriggled under a nearby bed to escape the hail of bullets. When Boyd tried to reload the pistol, another son tried to grab it. Boyd went to the car, reloaded his gun, came back into the house and called 911, telling the emergency operator, "I've shot my wife and her father - come on and get me." Then more gunshots can be heard on the 911 recording. Law enforcement officers arrived and as they approached Boyd came out of the nearby woods with his hands up and surrendered to the officers.

Later, after being advised of his rights, Boyd gave a lengthy confession in which he described the fatal shootings.