ADEL, Iowa (Court TV) — A woman accused of killing a real estate agent found shot to death at an open house urged a judge to dismiss her case, alleging that prosecutors misled the grand jury.
Kristin Ramsey appears in court on Aug. 21, 2026. (Court TV)
Kristin Ramsey, 53, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ashley Okland; she has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors filed charges 15 years after Okland’s death on April 8, 2011.
Okland was working at an open house when she was shot and killed. The doors and windows of the model home Okland planned to show were locked, and there was no sign of a struggle. Police recovered two spent .380-caliber cartridge cases from the scene.
Ramsey’s attorney, Alfredo Parrish, challenged the grand jury’s indictment on multiple levels, beginning with an alleged failure to properly swear in the panel and its foreperson. He said the swearing-in is missing from every transcript he reviewed. “We’ve never seen it,” he said.
Prosecutor Matthew Schultz said he was confident everything happened lawfully. “I was there and watched Judge Porter swear them in,” he said.
Parrish also argued prosecutors had a duty to present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury. That exculpatory evidence, Ramsey’s defense argued, includes the fact that a key eyewitness — identified in documents only as a “neighbor” — changed their story to report seeing the defendant at the scene of the crime only after the neighbor learned they themselves were a prime suspect.
Schultz said the defense was mischaracterizing the neighbor’s statements. “We do not believe it’s exculpatory, Your Honor. We believe that the testimony of the neighbor was consistent, and we believe that when we have an opportunity to present that to a jury, we’ll be able to show that. But Mr. Parrish will have every opportunity to punch whatever holes he believes are there at that time.” Schultz added that under Iowa law, “we don’t have to provide exculpatory evidence.”
Parrish maintained that Iowa law required disclosure of any exculpatory evidence. “Sometimes you have to ask yourself, is this something I would have done? Is this something I know a highly respected prosecutor would have done? That’s how we get the standards in Iowa that make us lead the country in terms of fairness.”
Schultz said that ultimately, nothing said to the grand jury would affect the defendant’s right to a fair trial. “Taking all the defendant’s arguments and let’s just say they’re true, when they’re not, but let’s just say they’re true,” Schultz said. “It doesn’t affect the trial. It does not affect the trial because the defendant will have every opportunity to provide all of the information that they believe shows that she’s innocent to a jury of her peers.”
Judge Coleman McAllister said he would take the arguments under advisement and issue a ruling later. He said if either side wants to submit a motion for a change of venue, the deadline is Oct. 15. McAllister set a tentative trial date for July 2027.
