Kensworth Moody, a Marine veteran, died at his Fleming Island home while being cared for by a fake nurse.
CLAY COUNTY, Fla — It’s been seven months since Marine veteran Kensworth Moody passed away when someone pretending to be a nurse was taking care of him. Now, his family insists that their pursuit of justice continues. They demand more arrests, more severe charges, and accountability from the healthcare company that assigned the impostor nurse to their home.
“There were just so many questions that I feel like weren’t answered,” Sandra Moody said about the investigation into her husband’s death.
Final hours caught on camera
Moody, 69, needed skilled nursing care 24/7. He died on Oct. 13, 2024, at his home in Fleming Island. His last moments were captured by a camera in his bedroom.
“You can see after he’s gasping for air, the nurse or alleged nurse goes up to him and messes with his trach. Um, and he’s not a nurse, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and that is, at that point, his only airway,” Kendra Moody, Kensworth Moody’s daughter, said.
The man in the video, identified by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office as Julien Williams, was an unlicensed home health aide. Authorities say he was using someone else’s identity while working for BrightStar Care of East Jacksonville/Neptune Beach. He had been in the Moody’s home multiple times.
Arrests made
Just weeks after a First Coast News investigation into Moody’s death aired, Williams and his fiancée, Alexiea Irwin, were arrested in Michigan. Both are charged with 16 counts, including practicing without a license and fraud.
According to Irwin’s arrest warrant, the franchise owner told police she took over scheduling, payroll and recruiting for BrightStar and manipulated records to make it appear that a licensed nurse was caring for Moody. She remains in custody in Michigan.
Williams has since been extradited to Clay County, where he is being held on a $400,000 bond. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment May 20.
“We wanted harder charges because we felt like he didn’t do anything,” Sandra Moody said. “He could have called 911. He could’ve woken me up.”
Delayed emergency response
A 60-page report from the Agency for Health Care Administration says that when Moody went into respiratory distress, Williams did not alert the family, initiate CPR or call for help. It was Moody’s daughter who eventually discovered he was unresponsive and called for help two hours later.
The report states the “delay in emergency care and lack of skilled nursing services…resulted in the unanticipated death of the patient.”
“We just feel like the whole case was neglected. Everything that we gave them was neglected. It wasn’t diligently being worked on,” Kendra Moody said.
Sheriff’s response
First Coast News brought the family’s concerns to Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook and her investigators.
“To the family who feels like the sheriff’s department ‘dropped the ball’ in their words, what’s your response to them?” Heather Crawford asked.
“When the initial call came in on a Sunday of a death, all indications at the time were it was a natural death. That’s what we were going on. And as soon as we got a phone call from a family member saying, ‘Hey, this is not right,’ we immediately started taking action. We started taking action by having the body moved to the Medical Examiner’s Office for a full autopsy,” Cook said.
But the Moodys say they requested an autopsy the day their loved one died. The medical examiner’s report says the sheriff’s office didn’t request it until 10 days later, and by then, Moody had already been embalmed.
The medical examiner ruled the manner of death natural.
“It’s manslaughter. It’s so beyond the rim of human decency. It’s not ordinary negligence. It’s reckless,” Darla Keen, the attorney representing the Moodys, said.
Push for more accountability
The Moodys and their attorney want law enforcement, the medical examiner and prosecutors to sit down with them and watch the video of Moody’s final moments.
“Nobody was in that room that could say CPR should have been at this time. There’s nobody in that room with a medical background or first responder background that could say this is exactly when that distress happened. If the evidence was there, we would file the charges,” Cook said.
“The fact that he did not call police, the fact that he did not call 911 for help, did not administer CPR, doesn’t that escalate the charges higher?” Heather Crawford asked.
“We’re going off of bits of pieces of camera footage that is motion detected sort of thing and there’s points where the impostor nurse’s back is to the camera and you can’t fully see it,” Cook said.
Franchise owner under scrutiny
The Moodys also want the owner of the BrightStar Care franchise held responsible. State records list the franchise owner as Suresh Pandurangam.
“I complained to the agency. You’re sending people that’s not trained here,” Sandra Moody recalled.
According to a final order from the Agency for Health Care Administration, the provider voluntarily surrendered its license to operate the home health agency in November 2024. In January, a BrightStar Care corporate team spokesperson told First Coast News, “We have already exercised our right to terminate the local franchisee’s franchise agreement, and it is no longer a part of the BrightStar Care system.”
“The big question that I have is why is the Clay County Sheriff’s Office not investigating the owners of this franchise, BrightStar?” Heather Crawford asked.
“At this point, based upon the evidence that we have, there’s nowhere to go with it. Now with that being said, we do understand that Veterans Affairs is conducting their own investigation,” Cook said.
A letter from BrightStar’s parent company shows the Jacksonville franchise was warned 10 months before Moody died that it was failing to vet and train staff properly, violating the franchise agreement.
“Franchisee admitted to hiring or engaging nurses in the past on an expedited basis to fulfill immediate patient needs without performing the required vetting, training, and other procedures, in violation of the Franchise Agreement,” the letter stated.
Detectives say the franchise owner and his attorney cooperated during interviews, but he has not responded to our calls or texts.
“AHCA (The Agency for Health Care Administration) is investigating administrative violations. None of the violations that they are investigating are criminal.” Sgt. Kelly Anderson said.
The sheriff says her office is committed to justice.
“We’re not opposed to upgrading charges if somebody has evidence, but it has to be factual evidence,” Cook said. “It has to be evidence that could be proven.”
The Moodys insist there is ample evidence, and they’re calling for Kensworth Moody’s cause of death to be changed from natural to undetermined.
“We’re suing the franchisee as well as the franchisor for what happened. And Mr. Moody and his family have a right to justice, and we’ll let the jury tell them what the truth is,” Keen said.
BrightStar did not respond to our request for a comment for this story. When First Coast News reached out to the VA Office of Inspector General, a spokesperson said they do not confirm or deny ongoing investigations.
The Moodys have formally asked the Florida Department of Health for another medical examiner to review the case. They say their fight for justice is not over.
