May 24, 2022

Man who killed Husker football players' grandad dies in prison

Posted May 24, 2022 9:38 PM
Harms
Harms

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man with a long history of mental illness when he killed the grandfather of two Nebraska football players more than two decades ago has died in prison.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services says in a news release that Russell Harms died in the system's Reception and Treatment Center in Lincoln on Monday. He was 64.

Harms had been in prison for 22 years for gunning down 84-year-old Tennyson Kelsay in the parking lot of an Auburn shopping center in 1999. The older man was the grandfather of then-Nebraska rush end Chris Kelsay and former Nebraska and Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, Chad Kelsay.

Harms was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison despite being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.