The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER assistant principal at the school where Bahamian Kameela Russell was employed has been charged with her murder in Florida.

Ernest Joseph Roberts, 39, was taken into custody on Friday morning by police and charged with first-degree murder.

“According to an arrest warrant, investigators found Mrs Russell’s spattered blood inside the house, and also that he dumped her car and tried to get another school’s employee to make it ‘disappear’,” The Miami Herald reports.

”Phone records and video surveillance also placed Russell at Roberts’ Miami Gardens home when she disappeared, according to police.”

The Tribune has not seen this arrest warrant.

Mrs Russell was employed as test proctor at Miami Norland Senior High School. A mother of two, she was last seen alive by her family on May 15. Her body was found days later in a canal.

Her death was ruled a homicide caused by blunt head injury, according to the Miami-Dade County medical examiner’s department.

According to The Miami Herald, investigators “immediately honed in” on Roberts, Norland’s ex-assistant principal, who had known Russell from childhood, according to her family.

Last week, Russell’s mother Linda Russell told The Miami Herald that she did not believe Roberts was connected to her daughter’s disappearance.

The report added the arrest warrant “detailed a compelling, if circumstantial case”, detailed below:

“Russell was last seen alive on the evening of May 15, when she pulled up to her aunt’s home in Miami Gardens to pick up her daughter. The plan, as usual, was to take her daughter to a 6:30 p.m gymnastics class.

“But Russell’s car, a black Audi, abruptly left the driveway and drove off. She then vanished, prompting a missing-persons search and a widespread hunt publicized by the media.

“On Monday, May 20, Roberts entered Lentin K-8 early in the morning, before he was scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C., to chaperone a student field trip, the warrant said.

“Then, he called a fellow employee at Lentin and ‘directed [him] to go to a specific file cabinet inside of conference room 908,‘” according to the warrant.

“Inside was a set of car keys and a hand-written note that read: ‘Do you know anyone that can chop up a car? If so or make it ‘disappear’ take these keys. It’s behind the speedway racetrack on 441 by County line. Friends are gone and need it to disappear. If not leave it + I’ll work it out later. THROW THIS NOTE AWAY!”

“The alarmed employee called Miami Gardens police officers. He told them that Roberts had also called him and said: ‘I did something crazy,‘” according to the warrant.

“He did not admit to killing Russell. Instead, Roberts claimed an intruder broke into his home and he ‘hit the person with a baseball bat.’ In person, Roberts later told the employee, he killed the supposed intruder, wrapped him in a tarp and ‘dragged the body through the house leaving blood stains,’” the warrant said.

“Roberts even asked the man ‘how to get rid of the blood stains.’ The employee thought Roberts was kidding but suggested Clorox bleach. The employee later called Roberts — as detectives secretly recorded — and acknowledged the Audi “referenced in the handwritten note,” the warrant said.

Officers “immediately” found the Audi just where the note reported.

In the wake of this evidence, Miami Gardens police raided Roberts’ home. The master bedroom had been cleaned with bleach - however the warrant reported an Amazon box with traces of blood spatter and a pair of bloody sandals were found in the bedroom.

“Tests showed the blood in the house matched Russell’s DNA.

“An extensive closed-circuit video surveillance security system inside his home had been shut off just before Russell arrived to his home, police said. And cameras from a neighbour’s house showed Russell pulling up to his house that night, shortly after she left her aunt’s home, the warrant said. She walked into the home — but was never seen leaving.

“Instead, the surveillance showed, Roberts backed her Audi up to the front door. Investigators believe he put her dead body into the car’s trunk. The footage showed he drove the Audi away, then returned home on foot later that night, according to the warrant by Miami Gardens Detective Pedro Valdes.

“Investigators have not said what the motive for the murder might have been.”

The Miami-Dade County Public Schools District released a statement following the arrest.

The statement reported the district is “appalled and saddened” and noted it has been cooperating with the police department.

“Based on preliminary information we received, the district took precautionary measures while the case was being investigated and immediately removed the individual from duty,” the statement continues. “Following his arrest, the district has initiated the employment termination process. Our prayers and thoughts continue to be with Ms Russell’s family.”

Hazel McKinney, the victim's aunt, previously told The Tribune: "Kameela was gentle, soft spoken with a heart for underprivileged and hurting children. She's the only child of her mother and the first of my deceased brother Michael Hall.

"She always had a smile and always seemed so full of joy. She's an accomplished violinist and played in Carnegie Hall."