Suspect in Ewa double homicide wants statements suppressed

A 24-year-old Ewa Beach man charged with first- degree murder in the 2020 deaths of his 23-year-old girlfriend and 6-month-old son is trying to prevent potentially damaging statements he allegedly made in a hospital emergency room from being used against him at trial.

Deputy Public Defender Hayley Cheng filed a motion to suppress statements that her client Kendall Ramsey allegedly made while he was at The Queen’s Medical Center on March 26, 2020, as well as statements made two months later to detectives.

A Honolulu Police Department incident report by HPD Cpl. Richard Townsend says Ramsey told an attending nurse he had been drunk and argued with his girlfriend, Kayla Holder, then stabbed her.

Townsend and HPD officer Shawn Borges escorted Ramsey to the hospital, and both activated their body-worn cameras shortly after 3 a.m., after Ramsey began responding when a Queen’s medical staffer asked, “What happened?”

Ramsey reportedly said he and Holder argued at home because their baby woke up and began crying the night of March 25, 2020. Borges wrote in his report that Ramsey said Holder hit and choked him, and in response he lost his temper, then hit and stabbed her. “Ramsey uttered that next he blacked out and remembers seeing his baby dead on the ground,” Borges’ report said. “He doesn’t know what happened, but knows he had something to do with it.”

A neighbor later found the bodies of Holder and the infant inside their townhouse in the Sun Rise complex on Hanapouli Circle near the Ewa Town Center.

Borges’ report said Ramsey said in the aftermath of the incident that he was drunk and couldn’t believe what he had done, and left the house. Ramsey also said he was depressed and suicidal. He said he also recalled being pulled out of his car by firefighters after a collision with another vehicle off Kunia Road and a private road. The crash occurred shortly after investigators responded to a call from the townhouse complex.

Ramsey is also charged with second-degree attempted murder of the 25-year-old driver of the other vehicle, Lynette Rojas.

The defense argues that his statement is confidential communication between patient and physician and is, therefore, protected under Hawaii Rules of Evidence and inadmissible at trial.

The statement was made to a person in the hospital room who was wearing scrubs, had a stethoscope around his neck and had hospital identification, so he could have been perceived as a physician, the motion says. The defense argues Ramsey was in a vulnerable position and had a gash on his hand needing immediate medical attention.

“Defendant was not in a position to refuse to answer questions by any QMC staff member because it could have possibly compromised or delayed the medical care he received,” the motion says.

The defense is also alleging that two HPD detectives failed to properly advise Ramsey of his right to counsel when he gave a recorded statement May 27, 2020, and confused the defendant with their questions and responses.

The defense motion contends that all questioning should have stopped after the defendant invoked his right to counsel.

Judge Ronald Johnson will hear the motion to suppress at a Feb. 7 evidentiary hearing and will determine whether Ramsey’s statements can be used at his jury trial.

The court notes the high- profile case will require a large panel from which to select a jury.

Ramsey’s $2 million bail amount was set aside, and he is being held without bail. He was indicted Sept. 14. The state Supreme Court ruling in State v. Obrero, issued Sept. 8, now requires certain felonies, including murder, to be charged by a grand jury indictment rather than by a written complaint and preliminary hearing.