The Iowa lady accused of gunning down an actual property agent throughout an open home 15 years in the past was launched on bond after dozens of individuals filed letters with the decide saying she isn’t a menace or a flight threat, courtroom data present.
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Kristin Ramsey, 53, posted 10% of a $500,000 bond Thursday after a decide lowered it from $2 million in money solely, the data present.
Ramsey was charged with first-degree homicide final month within the deadly capturing of Ashley Okland, 27, at a mannequin house in West Des Moines in 2011. She has pleaded not responsible and her legal professionals have mentioned that she “adamantly” maintains her innocence.
Okland’s killing shook the actual property business, prompting a collection of measures aimed toward making the day-to-day work of brokers safer.
Authorities haven’t recognized a doable motive within the killing. On the time, Ramsey labored as a gross sales supervisor for the corporate that owned the event the place Okland was internet hosting an open home.
In his order decreasing Ramsey’s bond, fifth Judicial District Decide Coleman McAllister cited 52 letters of help for Ramsey, a number of of which had been excerpted within the doc and describe her as a “devoted spouse and mom” who “poses no threat to the neighborhood in any way” and has “deep and longstanding roots in Iowa.”
Three witnesses, together with her mom, additionally testified on her behalf throughout a bond listening to on April 10, the order mentioned.
The prosecutor introduced no proof throughout the listening to, McAllister famous, however opposed Ramsey’s effort to scale back her bond quantity.
McAllister concluded that Ramsey posed a “comparatively average” threat of fleeing, he wrote, whereas the violent nature of Okland’s killing raised “cheap issues” about whether or not she’s a security threat.
“$2,000,000 is just not the least restrictive situation of launch supported by the proof introduced,” the decide wrote.
Along with a requirement of $50,000 money, McAllister dominated that Ramsey will stay on home arrest and below GPS monitoring. He ordered all weapons faraway from her house.
Okland was shot twice at shut vary on April 8, 2011. A witness noticed Ramsey exterior the mannequin house the place Okland was shot shortly after the particular person heard two obvious gunshots, authorities alleged in a submitting earlier this month. The witness reported seeing Ramsey pacing by her automotive, then getting within the car and driving away in what the submitting described as an erratic method.
The witness discovered Ramsey unresponsive inside the house and known as 911, based on the submitting.
The doc says Ramsey was interviewed on a number of events concerning the capturing and offered conflicting variations of her whereabouts on April 8, 2011. Lower than a month later, authorities executed a search warrant on her house.
The decide’s bond order, citing that search warrant and the interviews, mentioned it seems Ramsey was recognized as an individual of curiosity by regulation enforcement early on within the investigation.
“It’s noteworthy that regardless that she clearly remained an individual of curiosity to regulation enforcement because the investigation proceeded, Defendant didn’t flee or go away the world,” McAllister wrote.
Neither her legal professionals nor the prosecutor responded to requests for remark Friday afternoon.
Ramsey’s subsequent courtroom listening to is scheduled for June 19.
