He Killed His Teenage Daughter — Then Tried to Blame the Most Vulnerable Person in the House

• Kendra Farler was fatally shot in April 2024
• Farler’s father Kenneth Paul Farler III has now pleaded guilty in connection with her death
• “He wanted to accept responsibility for his actions,” his attorney Karl George Kordalis tells PEOPLE.

An Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his 15-year-old daughter — then trying to blame his stepson with autism — pleaded guilty on Tuesday, April 29.  

Kenneth Paul Farler III had been charged with one count each of involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and child endangering along with gun charges in connection with the death of Kendra Farler.

“He wanted to accept responsibility for his actions,” his attorney Karl George Kordalis tells PEOPLE. “He didn’t want to put his family through a trial and that’s why we entered guilty pleas earlier this week.”

Authorities said the fatal April 2024 shooting occurred at a boarding house in Dayton, where Farler was living. Officers arrived at the scene after receiving a 911 call.  

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The caller said that a 15-year-old female had been shot and killed at the residence by her 15-year-old sibling, who was autistic and nonverbal, Dayton Police Major Brian Johns said at a press conference.

According to Johns, officers spoke with Farler and the teen’s stepmother and both stated, “she was shot and killed by the sibling.”

Those comments “later proved to be false…the young lady was shot and killed by her father inside the Bowen Street address,” Johns said. He noted investigators “knew right away that those stories weren’t inconsistent” and on further questioning, “got an admission to the crime.”

Farler was on probation at the time for a cocaine trafficking conviction, prosecuting attorney Mat Heck Jr. told WLWT, and had been arrested “approximately 40 times over the past 20 years.”

“This defendant should never be allowed anywhere near a firearm and deserves to be in prison,” said Heck Jr. “A completely innocent 15‐year‐old girl has lost her life at the hands of her father.”

Sentencing is scheduled for May 14.