Kamauri Kennedy

A trial date was set in district court in Minot Wednesday for a Michigan man suspected in a 2021 murder of a Minot woman.

Kamauri Siede Kennedy, 34, Minot, appeared in North Central District Court before Judge Gary Lee for a pretrial hearing, which was briefly delayed because his attorney William Skees’ travel was slowed by winter weather conditions. Lee quipped that if he had known the severity of the storm he would have granted Skees’ request to appear via Zoom.

Kennedy is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder, both Class AA felonies.

Kennedy was arrested in Michigan after eluding North Dakota authorities seeking him as a person of interest in the murder of Domonique Kelley. Kelley was found deceased inside a burning vehicle in Minot on June 3, 2021.

Skees asked for the trial to be designated “priority #1” and for eight days to be set aside for the trial. The parties agreed to a start date of April 3, to conclude on April 12. Lee said the parties should expect around 75-100 potential jurors to be called for selection and to set aside at least a day of the trial to whittle them down to a list of 12 with two alternates. A final pretrial hearing is tentatively scheduled to occur sometime in February.

At the time of Kelley’s murder, Kennedy was on federal probation for charges related to a 2013 conviction for a smash-and-grab at an Atlanta, Georgia, jewelry store, where he participated in the theft of 19 Rolex watches worth $600,000. The terms of his probation required him to remain in Michigan after serving five and half years in prison, but it had been determined by Minot investigators that he had been living in Minot since November 2020.

Minot police began seeking Kennedy shortly after Kelley’s body was discovered, as they found he had ties to the victim. A residence associated with Kennedy was found intentionally burned and the vehicle Kennedy fled North Dakota in was later found burned and abandoned in the Minneapolis area. Kennedy later was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Michigan in August 2021 and was eventually extradited back to North Dakota, where he since has been held in the Ward County Jail.