Portsmouth Man Indicted for Murder of Yolanda McArdle

PORTSMOUTH, RI—Raymond Ramsey, accused of stabbing a 42-year-old mother of two to death in his Portsmouth apartment last year, has been indicted by the Newport County Grand Jury on a domestic murder charge.

Ramsey, 50, was arrested for murdering 42-year-old Yolanda McArdle on Sept. 8 after a rookie police officer responded to a noise complaint at his 100 Almedia Terrace apartment and arrived to find him there with the victim.

Portsmouth Police Chief Thomas Lee descired a horrific scene at a press conference following Ramsey’s arrest and said Ramsey and the victim had an on-again, off-again relationship.

Police had responded to domestic incidents several times in the past and Ramsey was arrested for domestic assault and battery just three months before the murder, which led to a no-contact order being issued.

Ramsey was free on bail at the time of the murder and the crime highlighted the frequency of repeat domestic violence offenses plaguing Rhode Island families and the obstacles facing victims. It also stunned this relatively low-crime coastal community in which murders are counted over decades, not years.

“It shows the tragedy of these types of cases,” Lee said. “I think it goes to the nature of domestic violence -- Portsmouth is a quiet community, a low crime community.”

McArdle’s killing was the was the sixth domestic violence murder to occur in Rhode Island in 2015.

Advocates for victims of domestic violence said McArdle’s murder shows how the criminal justice system needs to be revamped to better protect victims from repeat offenders.

“At the time he committed this heinous act he was out on bail, awaiting trial for a domestic violence crime he committed more than two months ago,” said Lori DiPersio, executive director of the Women’s Resource Center and Deborah DeBare, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence in a prepared statement. “In the wake of six domestic violence homicides and eight lives lost as a result of domestic violence in Rhode Island in 2015, it is critical that our criminal justice system strengthens its response to domestic violence.”

Ramsey, who also has used the alias Michael Jay, is due to be arraigned in Newport County Superior Court on March 3. He has been held without bail since his arrest.

McArdle left behind her parents, a husband, two children and three grandchildren.