Slain Fort Meade Soldier's Husband Stands Trial For Murder

FORT MEADE, MD — The estranged husband of a Fort Meade soldier and mother will face trial Monday in a federal courtroom on charges that he shot his wife in her Severn home, pulled down her clothes to make the killing look like a sexual assault, then placed their 4-month-old daughter in her arms and fled the state to establish an alibi for the murder. Karlyn Serane Ramirez and her husband, Army Master Sgt. Maliek Kearney, 37, had separated in August 2015, and Ramirez had obtained a protective order through the Army prohibiting all contact between the couple.

Ramirez, 24, was found shot to death in her Severn home with her infant daughter, Kattaleya Vale Kearney, unharmed beside her on Aug. 25, 2015. Kearney 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 originally said. But in October 2016, investigators testified that Kearney, with help from his then-girlfriend, Dolores Delgado, 33, of San Antonio, drove to Severn to kill Ramirez.

Kearney allegedly shot his wife three times late in the evening of Aug. 24, 2015, before driving 500 miles back to South Carolina to be at work the next morning in a move to provide an alibi he plotted ahead of time. Prosecutors said Delgado admitted buying gasoline to let Kearney travel to Maryland without stopping at a gas station and gave him the murder weapon.

Kearney is charged with traveling across state lines to commit domestic violence resulting in a death, The Baltimore Sun reports. If convicted, Kearney faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

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Delgado pleaded guilty in August 2017 in federal court for interstate travel to commit domestic violence resulting in death in connection with the death of Ramirez. Delgado faces a maximum sentence of life in prison when she is sentenced; she remains in custody.

According to court documents, Kearney reportedly finished work early on the afternoon of Aug. 24, 2015, and drove to Severn. He used his key to enter Ramirez's townhouse with a Taurus .357-caliber revolver.

Ramirez attempted to calm her husband, but she reiterated that she did not want to see him again, authorities say. Kearney shot Ramirez three times, killing her, then took off her pants and pulled down her underwear in an attempt to make the attack look like a sexual assault. Their child was likely left on her dead mother's body for about eight hours, investigators say.

Delgado provided the firearm that killed Ramirez and allowed Kearney to drive her car from South Carolina to Maryland to commit the murder, authorities claim in court papers. Delgado also purchased large gas cans Kearney took with him on the drive to Maryland so that he would not have to stop for gas and risk being seen.

Prosecutors say Delgado, who lived in Florida at the time Ramirez was killed, stayed at Kearney's South Carolina apartment with his phone and vehicle so it would appear that he was in that state at the time of the murder. After the slaying, the Taurus .357-caliber revolver used to shoot Ramirez and shell casings were tossed into a Florida waterway, along with clothing the couple wore during the murder and the key Kearney used to enter the townhouse.

The suspect also dismantled the revolver and took steps to obliterate the serial number. Once the weapon was recovered by law enforcement divers, forensic testing determined that it was the gun used by Kearney to shoot Ramirez, according to a news release.

Delgado and Kearney were indicted Oct. 4, 2016, by a Maryland grand jury for interstate travel to commit domestic violence resulting in death.

Local authorities have 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 after the indictments in 2016. "I greatly appreciate the thousands of hours of hard work that went into solving 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.

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 lives with her grandmother.

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