KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM/FM) — The preliminary hearing for murder suspect Kevin Stanfill got underway Wednesday with tearful testimony from the suspect’s own sister, who testified she was with her brother and his wife, Kelly Ann Karl Stanfill, on the last night of her life in December as they were traveling.
Jerri Stripling testified how Stanfill was regularly abusive and the two would frequently argue. She told the court that it was one last argument that prompted him to stop the vehicle along remote AB Avenue in northern Kalamazoo County, walk his wife, the mother of their three children, out into an empty field in the middle of the night and shoot her five or six times in the head.
She saw the flashes and heard the gunshots. Stripling testified that her brother then ran back and threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone.
It was only a couple of months later, when feeling threatened herself that she went to police and led them to the body.
Kalamazoo District Judge Richard Santoni wants to hear more testimony on March 9 before deciding whether to send Stanfill to trial and which charges he should face.
Family members have set up a gofundme page to help with their children.
