ST. LOUIS — A woman and her two young daughters were fatally shot in their Dutchtown home by the woman's former boyfriend before he bought a bus ticket and attempted to flee east, police said in court records Friday.
Ronald S. Marr, 34, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He was captured 100 miles from St. Louis, in Effingham, Illinois, and has refused to waive extradition to Missouri.
St. Louis police said the three victims — 30-year-old Kanisha Hemphill, her 7-year-old daughter Journee and 1-year-old daughter Ja'Kari — were each shot multiple times in their home at 4124 South Grand Boulevard.
Officers responding to a call for shots fired went into the home about 7 a.m. Thursday and found the three dead.
Marr was being held Friday morning in the Effingham County Jail. In a brief video court hearing Friday before Effingham County Judge Jeffrey DeLong, Marr appeared in an orange-and-white striped jail jumpsuit. An attorney assigned to speak to Marr told DeLong that Marr didn't know how to read. So the attorney read the court documents to him about waiving extradition, which would allow St. Louis detectives to bring him back to Missouri to stand trial on the murder charges.
Marr at first waived it, then refused, then flip-flopped again, all in a matter of minutes, mumbling at times so that court officials couldn't understand his words. His last answer: a refusal to waive extradition. Marr will stay put in the Effingham county jail without bail until a hearing Feb. 25, DeLong said.
A St. Louis judge has said that, once Marr returns to Missouri, he will be held at the St. Louis jail without bail too.
In court records, St. Louis police Detective Katherine Rund said a witness heard the shots and saw Marr run from the home. The witness identified Marr in a photo lineup.
After the shooting, Marr threw away his cellphone and bought a replacement, police said. Then he bought a Greyhound bus ticket and fled.
Police did not provide a motive for the killings.
Hemphill's older brother, Jermaine Walker, said he had seen Marr before and knew Marr and his sister had domestic problems.
"They call him Lil' Ron," he said. "I didn't really care for him. They had a few instances and I always told my sister, leave the guy alone. But she ended up having a baby by him."
The baby was Ja'Kari, called by the nickname ReRe.
"ReRe just turned 1," Walker said, "and (Marr) probably came to woo my sister and say, 'Baby, open the door.' She had no idea he was going to do that, and she opened the door."
Walker said the family is reeling from the deaths.
"The death penalty would be too easy for him," Walker said. "He should have ate a bullet right after that."
Marr's only criminal conviction listed in a police probable cause statement is for possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance. He was given a suspended sentence in that 2017 case and there is no mention of it in online court records.
Marr lives in the 10100 block of Newbold Drive in Bellefontaine Neighbors, according to the charges. Police, however, said he lived in the 500 block of Roberts Avenue in St. Louis. He had no attorney listed in court records.
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(Joel Currier of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.)
