Left: Jeffery Kendall (Pinole police). Right: Brittany Ligdis, foreground, and her mother (GoFundMe).
A 39-year-old California man will spend decades behind bars for murdering his ex-girlfriend as she hid in a laundry room with their toddler son — a killing prosecutors called "an execution in front of a 4-year-old child."
Jeffery Kendall was sentenced to between 50 years and life in prison for the killing of 30-year-old Brittany Ligdis, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office said. A jury in May convicted Kendall of first-degree murder and child endangerment.
Ligdis called police after Kendall broke into her home. The 911 call captured her horrifying last moments. She said she was hiding in the laundry room with her son. But Kendall hunted her down.
Less than two minutes into the call, Ligdis pleaded "Let go of me" and "you're scaring him" before she yelled "stop it." Kendall shot her dead with a single gunshot to the head. The couple's son, then 4, yelled "mommy" before he ran out of the room.
Pinole police found Ligdis dead from a gunshot wound in a home in the 500 block of Summit Drive on Feb. 16, 2024. Cops, having identified Kendall as the suspect after he was captured on home surveillance cameras fleeing the scene, issued a "be on the lookout" alert for his Hyundai Elantra. Later that evening, California Highway Patrol troopers spotted the car and took him into custody after a traffic stop.
Kendall also was convicted of possessing an assault weapon for using a 3D-printed pistol capable of semiautomatic fire. At sentencing, the judge said the case was "one of the most difficult" he has experienced. Kendall can only contact his son under court approval until November 2035, when the boy turns 16.
Ligdis' aunt Nancy O'Neil told Bay Area Fox affiliate KTVU after the murder that the boy was traumatized.
"He keeps saying 'mommy's dead, mommy's dead,'" O'Neil told KTVU. "We replay it in our heads over and over every day."
Ligdis had apparently broken up with Kendall about a week before the murder. Her friend Kassandra Santiago said in an interview with the outlet that Ligdis sent her a text saying Kendall did not take the breakup well.
"She said to me 'I'm doing OK, but it's really hard. He's very unpredictable right now,'" she said.
Santiago said Ligdis was studying at Diablo Valley College to become a nurse. She was known for her passion for nursing and her willingness to help fellow students, Santiago told KTVU.
"She had so much going for her," she said.
Relatives said her son is now staying with family members.
Friends of her mother, Cathy Ligdis, started a GoFundMe to help with finances.
"Brittany was not only a devoted daughter to Cathy but also a dedicated nursing student and a loving mother to 4-year-old Liam," the description said.
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