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The murder trial for a man charged with killing his ex-girlfriend and her son began in Kentucky Monday, more than three years after their deaths.
Joshua Ward, 51, of Cincinnati, Ohio, is accused of fatally shooting Kelli Kramer, 31, and her 9-year-old son, Aiden Kramer, in their Burlington, Ky., apartment in March 2018, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
According to the statement, made at the time of Ward’s arrest in May 2018, the suspect dated Kelli for six months in 2016 and 2017. The relationship came to an abrupt end, investigators said, and Ward allegedly believed that Kelli was “responsible for destroying him.”
“I think a lot of it was jealousy,” Kelli’s mother, Marilyn Kramer,told Spectrum News 1 Kentucky, speculating about why Ward would have reason to hurt her daughter. “He thought he was gonna get back at her.”
Joshua Ward.Boone County Sheriff’s Office
Aiden, who was also targeted in the violent attack, was a fourth-grader at Burlington Elementary School at the time of his death — and a straight-A student, according to his grandfather, John Kramer.
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“He was always in the middle of activities. Easy to get along with. Always ready to do something. You want to take a picture of him? He was ready with a smile,” John told Spectrum News. “He was kind of like a buddy to everybody. I mean, that’s what he was known for.”
It is unclear if Ward has entered pleas to his charges. Attorney information for the defendant was unavailable at the time of publishing.
source: people.com
