A former Army soldier was convicted by an Oahu jury of first-degree murder for the stabbing deaths of his girlfriend and their 6-month-old son, a killing so brutal that responding officers found the words "I'm sorry" scrawled in blood on the couple's apartment walls.
Background
Kendall Ramsey, 28, a Chicago native and former Army soldier, was found guilty for the 2020 deaths of Kayla Holder, 23, and Kainoa Ramsey. The killings took place in the second-floor studio where the family lived in Hawaii.
Prosecutors recounted during trial how police were "unprepared for the horror that awaited them" at the scene. Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell told jurors during opening statements that one officer smelled it before he saw it — blood had splattered the walls, soaked the sofa and caked the carpet. The infant lay on his back near a trash can, dressed only in a diaper, with brain matter bulging from a devastating wound to the top of his head.
Holder was found nearby on her back with her eyes "wide open, their vacant stare skyward," Bell said, describing how her thick hair lay in a pool of blood that had congealed around her head.
The Trial
Authorities say Holder suffered 38 stab wounds while Kainoa sustained 17. Before fleeing the scene, Ramsey wrote "I'm sorry" and "I stabbed her. She choked me." on the walls in blood, according to prosecutors.
Ramsey allegedly caused a car crash after leaving the apartment — an act his defense attorney said was an attempt to take his own life. He later told a hospital worker he had been drinking, got into a fight with Holder, lost his temper and blacked out, waking to find both victims dead.
Deputy Public Defender Hayley Cheng argued Ramsey reached "a breaking point," telling jurors, "This was a man in crisis." She attributed his state to depression and suicidal thoughts rooted in childhood abuse, abandonment, trauma, shame and the stress of unemployment. "It was not carefully planned; it was a complete collapse," Cheng said.
Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm called the killings "an extraordinarily brutal act of domestic violence that took two innocent lives and forever devastated those who loved them."
Key Takeaways
- Kendall Ramsey, 28, faces life in prison without parole after an Oahu jury convicted him of first-degree murder.
- Kayla Holder suffered 38 stab wounds; her infant son Kainoa sustained 17.
- The words "I'm sorry" were found smeared in blood on the couple's apartment walls.
What's Next
Ramsey is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18 and faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole.