ST. LOUIS — A man from Arnold, MO was found guilty Thursday in a 2017 murder where he ordered two other men to attack the victim over a romantic interest.
Khamkhay Samatmanivong, 57, was found guilty of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery in the shooting death of Charles D. Keltz, 37.
Warning: details of the case are disturbing.
The murder happened in the 7000 block of Michigan Avenue in the city’s Carondelet neighborhood on November 23, 2017.
Samatmanivong had driven his black BMW to a BP gas station at the corner of Virginia and Bates avenues, where he met a 31-year-old woman.
Samatmanivong bought the woman cigarettes and a Cardinals hat at the gas station and gave her cash, telling her he wanted her to be his girlfriend and live with him in his house in Arnold. She asked him to drop her off near the apartment where she lived with Keltz.
Later that evening, Samatmanivong drove to the woman's apartment to get his money back and waited for her to come out. Instead, Keltz went outside and told Samatmanivong that the woman was not there.
Samatmanivong called to two other men, Maurice Whitt and Durrell Anderson, who beat Keltz and began pounding on the apartment door while the woman hid in the bedroom closet.
Whitt entered the apartment and dragged the woman out of the closet by her hair. While she was being dragged out of the apartment, she heard gunshots. Home surveillance cameras showed two men outside the apartment beating and then chasing Keltz, who was shot as he tried to run away to call for help.
Whitt and Anderson got into their car and drove off. Samatmanivong and the woman followed in his BMW, and he told the woman they were going to kill her. When the two cars slowed in traffic in front of a nearby bar on Michigan Avenue, the woman jumped out of the car and ran inside, fearing for her life.
“The courage and determination of the surviving victim were instrumental in bringing about justice in this case,” said Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore. “The city is safer with this criminal ringleader behind bars.”
Samatmanivong will be sentenced on November 1, 2024.
Anderson pleaded guilty in 2023 to second-degree murder, armed criminal action, and kidnapping and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Whitt is awaiting trial.
