Husband Killed Wife, Placed Baby in Her Arms, Fled Maryland: FBI

FORT MEADE, MD — The husband of a Fort Meade soldier and mother shot his wife in her Severn home, then placed their 5-month-old daughter in her arms and fled the state to establish an alibi for the murder, federal authorities said Tuesday.

Earlier this month, a federal grand jury indicted the husband of Karlyn Serane Ramirez, along with his girlfriend, for Ramirez's Aug. 25, 2015, murder. Ramirez, 24, was found shot to death in her Severn home with her infant daughter, Kattaleya Vale Kearney, unharmed beside her.

Ramirez's husband, Maliek Kearney, 35, a master sergeant in the Army, was stationed at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, when his wife died, and he was reportedly on duty in South Carolina at the time his wife was killed, police said. But during a Tuesday hearing in U.S. District Court in San Antonio, Texas, where Kearney is now stationed, FBI agent Jonathan Shaffer testified that Kearney and his then-girlfriend drove to Severn to kill Ramirez.

Kearney allegedly shot his wife to death, then placed baby Kattaleya in her mother's arms before driving 500 miles back to South Carolina to be at work the next morning, Shaffer said, in a move to provide an alibi he plotted ahead of time.

“The child was placed on the arm of Miss Ramirez, where it was left until the next morning (when) she was found,” Shaffer testified, according to a report by the San Antonio Express-News. The baby spent nearly eight hours alone, on her dead mother’s body, the FBI agent said.

Federal prosecutors allege that Kearney and his girlfriend at the time, Dolores Delgado, 31, also of San Antonio, planned the drive to Severn to kill Ramirez. The couple were indicted Oct. 4 by a Maryland grand jury for interstate travel to commit domestic violence resulting in death; the indictment was unsealed after he defendants were arrested in San Antonio.

Delgado stayed in South Carolina during the killing but let Kearney drive her car to Maryland and gave him the gun he used to shoot his wife, Shaffer said.

Local authorities declined to discuss what led investigators to consider Kearney a suspect in his wife's death.

"I want to say how proud I am of the investigators on this case. Every one of them, from Anne Arundel to the federal government LIVED their obligation to be PFC Ramirez' and her family's final advocates," said Anne Arundel County Police Chief Timothy Altomare in a statement to Patch. "I greatly appreciate the thousands of hours of hard work that went into solving this case."

According to the federal indictment, on Aug. 24, 2015, Kearney and Delgado drove from South Carolina to Maryland with the intent to fatally shoot Ramirez; she was killed in the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 2015. Both defendants face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

“The indictment alleges that Maliek Kearney and Dolores Delgado conspired to murder Karlyn Ramirez, a U.S. Army private first class based at Fort Meade, Maryland,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein in a news release. “I am grateful to the police and prosecutors who have been working tirelessly to pursue justice in this case.”

Kearney, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist, enlisted in 2000 and has spent time both in the Army and Pennsylvania National Guard, according to the Army Times. He has maintained he is innocent in his wife's death.

Anne Arundel County Police held a news conference in March to plead for tips in Ramirez's death.

“A young lady who was in the prime of her life, who was service driven, serving her country, had her life stolen from her in her own home,” said Altomare in the spring.

Officers found Ramirez’s body after maintenance workers reported the door to her home open in the 8000 block of Millstone Court, which seemed suspicious, and called police. Ramirez died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Police Sgt. John Poole said there was no sign of forced entry to Ramirez's home or indications of a robbery.

The victim’s daughter is now living with her grandmother.

»Photo of Karlyn Ramirez, courtesy of Anne Arundel County Police