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| source: Investigation Discovery |
Karlyn Ramirez (24) was murdered by her estranged husband, Maliek Kearney (then 37) on August 24th, 2015. Both Karlyn and Maliek were soldiers in the US Army, and they had a four-month-old daughter together. At the time of Karlyn’s death, she and Maliek were stationed at two different places. Karlyn was stationed at Fort Meade and lived in Severn, Maryland. Maliek was stationed in Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
Karlyn and Maliek had a very rocky relationship, even though they had only been married for five weeks. Prior to her death, Karlyn told Maliek she wanted a divorce. Maliek was angry at Karlyn’s request for divorce, even though he was already having an affair with Dolores Delgado (then 33).
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| Dolores Delgado. (source: CBS News) |
Dolores was also a member of the US Army. She had met Maliek while serving back in 2007. The two also had a tumultuous relationship. At some point, Maliek confided in Dolores about his plans for Karlyn. He allegedly told Dolores that he was going to kill Karlyn unless Karlyn ended up reconciling with him. Together, Maliek and Dolores began to put this plan in motion.
On the day of Karlyn’s death, Dolores gave Maliek a gun and allowed him to borrow her car to drive to Karlyn’s home. She also agreed to lie to investigators by telling them that Maliek was with her at the time Karlyn was killed.
Dolores claimed that she thought Maliek and Karlyn would actually end up reconciling, but instead Maliek did what he originally planned to do and shot Karlyn multiple times. Karlyn’s body was found by the police the next day, with their four-month-old baby laying in her arms. The baby was fortunately not harmed.
In the months following Karlyn’s death, Maliek allegedly cozied up to Karlyn’s family as he played the role of the grieving widower. Dolores was quite uncomfortable with this, and she had allegedly grown fearful of Maliek after he committed the murder. Still, the two continued to have a sexual relationship.
In fact, their relationship continued up until they were finally arrested in October 2016. It took investigators over a year to gather enough evidence to charged not only Maliek for Karlyn’s murder, but Dolores for being an accomplice to the murder as well.
On August 8th, 2017, Dolores pleaded guilty to being an accomplice in Karlyn’s murder. She was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Dolores also agreed to testify against Maliek at his trial. During Dolores' testimony, she once again confessed to providing Maliek with a gun, car, and alibi while he murdered his wife. She also admitted to giving Maliek extra gas cans so he would not have to stop at a gas station during his road trip to Karlyn's residence.
On August 9th, 2018, the jury found Maliek guilty of crossing state lines to commit domestic violence resulting in the death of Karlyn Ramirez. He was sentenced to life in prison.
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| Maliek Kearney. (source: People) |