The man police have charged with murdering his wife in Cooper Township is scheduled to next be in court Wednesday, Feb. 15, in Kalamazoo.
Kevin Jacob Stanfill, 40, is charged with open murder, possession of a weapon by a felon and two counts of felony firearms.
In a court hearing in January, police described how Stanfill’s sister (who is unnamed in the hearing) had told a Child Protective Services worker that she’d witnessed her brother kill his wife, Kelly Ann (Karl) Stanfill, 36, on Nov. 18.
“She gave us a full description of what happened and that her brother and sister-in-law had gone toa secluded area in Cooper Township on AB Avenue near 12th Street,” a detective states on a recording of the hearing. “They’d gotten out (of the vehicle) to go for a walk to vent, they said.
“A few minutes later she heard five gunshots.
“He got back in the van and asked her not to tell on him, threatened her several times over the course of the next few months and said he’d do the same thing to her if she told and put her with this wife.”
The sister was able to lead police to the woman’s body and took them to a place where she said he’d disposed of the murder weapon. In the video police said the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team was searching for the weapon.
Stanfill, police said, called police in Battle Creek to report his wife missing and claimed to them she was a “prostitute and meth head” who often disappeared. Police told him he should make the report in Kalamazoo where she had lived, but he never did.
Police found five shell casings at the scene, they said, and said a handgun Stanfill had access to had been reported missing by a family member.
An autopsy, police said, had ruled the victim’s death a homicide caused by gunshot wounds.
Media reports have also named Stanfill as a suspect police are investigating for involvement in a hit and run in Kalamazoo, where a vehicle like Stanfill’s hit a man and his two children crossing a street in the Edison Neighborhood.
Video released shows the van failing to slow down.
Contact Dan Pepper at dpepper@allegannews.com or at (269) 673-5534 or (269) 685-9571.
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