MORGANTOWN – One by one, relatives of Charles and Lupe McGranahan and their daughter, Angela McGranahan, described how they kept a home filled with joy and went through life expressing kindness and generosity.

“You could always count on seeing the biggest smiles in that house and hearing the best laughter,” said Cyndi Beller, another daughter of Charles and Lupe McGranahan. “My parents were happiest when they had a house full … when you walked in, you could literally feel the weight of the world come off your shoulders.”

Beller said her father was always quick with a joke and an offer of a cup of coffee, and her mother would make sure any guest was well fed, while her sister, Angela, was a certified nurse’s assistant who treated her patients with compassion.

“She loved her patients with her whole heart, they became her family,” Beller said.

Beller’s description of the household and its members came Friday in Butler Circuit Court at the sentencing hearing for Joseph Carey, estranged husband of Angela McGranahan and son-in-law of Charles and Lupe McGranahan.

Carey, 34, pleaded guilty in July to three counts of murder, three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment and one count each of first-degree burglary and tampering with physical evidence.

The McGranahans were found gunned down in their home Jan. 19, 2021, at their residence on Lonnie Snodgrass Road. Angela McGranahan was 30, Charles McGranahan was 79 and Lupe McGranahan was 63.

Carey was arrested later that day by Kentucky State Police.

According to prior court testimony, Carey had been served with divorce papers a month before the incident and there had been no formal agreement establishing custody over the children the couple shared.

The first responding law enforcement officers encountered Carey on the property, where he reportedly admitted to carrying out the shootings.

In addition to the victims, police found three children in the home.

At Friday’s sentencing hearing, surviving family members read from written statements detailing the joy with which their loved ones approached life, the devastation their deaths brought, the resolve with which the survivors face the future and the scorn they held for Carey.

“For months after this happened, I wondered why you didn’t just kill yourself and put us out of all this heartache,” Tony McGranahan, a son of Charles and Lupe and brother of Angela, said in remarks to Carey. “You manipulated my sister and my family for years, but I’m glad that control is finally out of your hands. We get to breathe a sigh of relief because we get to finally be done with you.”

Tony McGranahan said that, while the lives of his parents and sister had been taken, they continue to live on through their surviving loved ones.

“My family and friends still find reasons to find joy … you couldn’t touch that,” Tony McGranahan said. “We reminisce about them daily, we will keep them alive by doing that. No one’s going to do that for you.”

Rayna Beller, a granddaughter of Charles and Lupe McGranahan, described the many things she and others miss about her grandparents and their daughter, Angela – nights watching scary movies, breakfasts at Hardee’s, day trips with her grandfather when she missed school.

In addition to those losses, the children left behind are no longer able to enjoy fireworks due to associating them with the trauma from the shootings.

“(My grandparents) accepted you despite the abuse you put their daughter and grandchildren through,” Rayna Bellar said. “Those kids will get to grow up in a stable household where they know what true love is.”

Jonathan McGranahan, another son of Charles and Lupe and brother of Angela, said the tragedy “scared and took the innocence from” the children found in the house.

Despite the emotional scars, Jonathan McGranahan said the survivors take solace in the memory of their loved ones.

“Their love still lives through this family and this community,” Jonathan McGranahan said. “My sister’s bravery and courageousness runs through all of us.”

Butler County Commonwealth’s Attorney Blake Chambers had sought the death penalty before Carey accepted a plea agreement that recommended he serve a life sentence with no chance at parole.

Chambers said the plea agreement spares the family years of likely appeals of a death sentence in the court system, prevents Carey from causing further harm and allows surviving family a chance to process their grief outside court.

Chambers described the shootings as “a sneak attack ambush of a coward.”

“There’s no way to adequately describe the horror of that scene,” Chambers said. “I’ve never seen a case, a crime or a man who deserved the death penalty more and I pray I never see something like this again … I think (Carey has) forfeited his right to ever walk free among society again.”

Family members gathered for the hearing applauded at the end after Butler Circuit Judge Tim Coleman sentenced Carey to life without parole and Carey was led from the courtroom.

Carey also awaits sentencing in a criminal case in Warren County, in which he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.

Carey was indicted in February on the sexual abuse counts based on allegations that he had illegal sexual contact with a juvenile in his care in Warren County in 2020.

A plea agreement reached in that case recommends a five-year sentence for Carey, who will be formally sentenced in that matter in Warren Circuit Court on a date to be determined.