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Federal Trial Began Monday In Killing Of Fort Meade Soldier

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Stationed at Fort Meade, 24-year-old Karlyn Ramirez was shot to death in August 2015, at her off-base townhouse in Severn.

"I thought I heard something, and at the beginning I thought it was firecrackers maybe." A neighbor said.

Next to Ramirez's body, police found her four-month-old daughter unharmed. It took police, the FBI and Army a year to charge her estranged husband, Sergeant Maliek Kearney, with the crime.

karlyn ramirez
Army Pfc. Karlyn Ramirez
Kearney Trial
Army Pfc. Karlyn Ramirez

Prior to her killing, Ramirez had secured a restraining order against Kearney.

His trial began Monday in federal court because Kearney allegedly left his base at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, and crossed state lines to commit murder.

At the time of his arrest in 2016, Corporal Jacklyn Davis with Anne Arundel County Police said, "A lot of things had to happen for this to fall into place. A lot of evidence had to be sorted through, most of it electronic."

Among the dozens of witnesses who will testify is Dolores Delgado, Kearney's girlfriend, who supplied a car, a gun and an alibi. Indicted along with Kearney, Delgado entered a plea deal, and will testify for the prosecution before she is sentenced.

More than 100 prospective jurors were called and interviewed. The trial is expected to take at least three weeks.

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