ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis jury convicted a man on Wednesday for the murders of his ex-girlfriend and her two young daughters. The verdict came nearly three years to the day of the ghastly crime.
Kanisha Hemphill, 30, and her daughters, Journee, 8, and Ja’kari, 1, were found shot to death on the morning of Feb. 4, 2021, inside a residence in the 4100 block of South Grand Avenue.
A witness called 911 after hearing the gunshots and saw Ronald Marr leaving the apartment.
Prosecutors said Marr told a witness that his former girlfriend “was going to die” after she’d recently served him with paperwork for paternity testing.
Marr bought a bus ticket to Ohio, but police and U.S. marshals apprehended him at a bus stop in Effingham, Illinois. Marr initially claimed that he’d been in Effingham the entire week and that he didn’t know Hemphill.
Marr, now 36, was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder. He’ll be sentenced on March 8, although it serves as a formality. The punishment for first-degree murder is life without the possibility of parole.
