Kendra McKenzie Gill The Latest In Long Line Of Misbehaving Pageant Winners

Kendra McKenzie Gill was getting ready to compete in the Miss Utah competition, but instead she’s behind bars after being arrested for throwing homemade explosives from a moving car.

Gill and three others were arrested in Salt Lake City after turning a concoction of plastic bottles, aluminum foil, and household chemicals into bombs that they lobbed into neighborhoods. One of the other passengers, Bryce Christopher Stone, said the group was simply trying to “prank” the neighborhood with fireworks.

Unified Fire Authority Capt. Clint Mecham said the homemade bombs were much more dangerous than the youths were letting on.

“They can sever limbs, they can even kill people depending on what the chemical combinations are used,” he said. “This is very, very serious.” Mecham added that the group threw the bombs at people and property in the neighborhood.

The incident came just two months after Kendra McKenzie Gill was crowned Miss Riverton, Utah, a town of close to 40,000 people that’s about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City. The win came with a $2,000 scholarship.

The crime — and the mugshot of a teary eyed Kendra McKenzie Gill — was shocking, but not entirely out of line with other misbehaving pageant winners.

In December the winner of the Miss Las Cruces competition had to forfeit her title after being arrested and charged with aggravated DWI. She was accused of driving drunk and crashing her PT Cruiser into a light pole, then afterward took a smiling mugshot.

Sarah Richardson, who had aspirations of going to the Miss America contest, issued an apology after the incident.

“I realize that at this time I must step back and reflect, prioritize my life and accept the consequences,” she wrote. “I am very sincerely sorry for those that I have let down in this incident.”

There have been other incidents as well, including Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner who was accused of partying too much and tested positive for cocaine after her pageant win.