ADEL, Iowa (Court TV) — A woman accused of gunning down a realtor at an open house in 2011 is fighting to get her indictment dismissed, claiming in a new motion that the state’s case rests on the shoulders of a former suspect in the case.
Kristin Ramsey cries as her mother testifies during a bond hearing on April 10, 2026. (Court TV)
Kristin Ramsey, 53, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Ashley Okland, who was shot and killed on April 8, 2011. The victim was found with gunshot wounds, alone in a model home; there was no sign of a struggle, just two spent .380-caliber cartridge cases.
Prosecutors have confirmed that Ramsey was previously a person of interest in their investigation, but have not offered any specific details about what information finally led them to file charges in the case. In a newly filed motion asking for the indictment against Ramsey to be dismissed, her defense team says that the prosecution’s case relies on a single eyewitness with a questionable story.
The witness, identified only as a “neighbor” in court documents, lived next door to the scene of the crime. The first three times the witness spoke to police — on the day of the killing, the next day and then two days later — she told the same story consistently: She heard gunshots, and then three minutes later she saw Ramsey drive up to the scene.
Ramsey’s defense said in its motion that things changed on April 14, when the lead detective in the case told her that she was being eyed as a possible suspect. “Around the time the neighbor learned she was the prime suspect herself, the neighbor changed her story,” the defense wrote. “The neighbor told police that she heard the shots, looked outside, and there was Ms. Ramsey.” While the first version of events exonerated their client, Ramsey’s attorneys said, the second version clearly labeled her as a potential suspect.
Handwritten notes from a detective memorialize a statement from a neighbor after Ashley Okland was killed. (Court Documents)
After that interview, investigators allegedly lost contact with the witness because she moved to Florida. In 2025, a cold case investigator reconnected with her, but Ramsey’s defense said she declined to speak with him, saying her attorney advised her not to speak with police or cooperate with the investigation. “Inexplicably, [the detective] assured her that she was not a suspect, and, only after that assurance, she agreed to cooperate,” the defense said.
Prosecutors sent a four-person team from Iowa to Florida to interview the neighbor, but never recorded the session. The only documentation that exists, Ramsey’s defense said, is a three-page report.
“Rather than ‘gauge her recollection’ by asking open-ended non-leading questions, the report says that the investigative team literally handed the neighbor evidence from the case and asked her to review it,” the defense said. “The report fails to specify exactly what materials they gave the neighbor. The investigators then left the neighbor alone with the evidence for an unspecified amount of time.”
When the neighbor was brought to Iowa to testify before the grand jury, Ramsey’s defense claims, prosecutors only elicited her statement that she saw Ramsey immediately after hearing the gunshots, and did not confront her about her changing statements.
Prosecutors have not yet responded to the filing; no date has been set for a judge to hear arguments.
