Demarcus J. Rubell had been waiting for the ax to fall, officials say.
After fatally shooting a woman during a robbery attempt in Haltom City on Jan. 3, 2011, Rubell felt certain his arrest was imminent, court documents state."Baby, I did something bad. I might not ever get out of jail. I love you," he reportedly told his girlfriend, and then his mother, in phone calls placed while fleeing the scene, the documents state.Arriving home, he told his girlfriend that he had made a big mistake and took her to Olive Garden for what he believed might be their last outing.Later that day, as he had feared, Rubell was arrested at gunpoint by Fort Worth police during a traffic stop.It was not, however, because of the killing but rather in connection with an unrelated aggravated robbery and burglary."Rubell was thinking it was for the murder case, and he was relieved when he found out it was just for the other case," court documents state.After a year and a half, on Wednesday, Rubell, 26, was charged with capital murder in the death of Kimberly Maokhamphiou. The 36-year-old woman was in Haltom City visiting relatives and was standing by her car in the parking lot of an apartment complex on North Beach Street when she was shot.She, her husband and three children were on their way home to California after a trip to Disney World in Florida, Maokhamphiou's sister, Jackie Lee, said Wednesday.Little to go onAccording to an arrest warrant affidavit, investigators received information in April that Rubell was behind the slaying.According to that information, Rubell needed money and was looking for someone to rob when he spotted a woman standing at the trunk of her car at the Fossil Ridge Apartment complex at 5600 N. Beach St.He walked up to the woman, pulled a gun and demanded, "Give it up! Give it up!"Maokhamphiou told Rubell she didn't have anything, saying her possessions were upstairs.As she pressed some kind of alarm or panic button, Rubell shot her. He ran to his car and sped off, weaving in and out of traffic on a freeway because he believed a maintenance man was following him, the affidavit states.Cpl. Daniel Pearson, supervisor of the Haltom City Police Department's street crimes unit, said investigators had little to go on initially. A maintenance man did briefly see the gunman but did not get a clear look at his face. Surveillance video from nearby stores and red light cameras offered no help."During the investigation, we did a canvass of the complex for two days, making contact with every apartment that someone lived in at that time," Pearson said. "We questioned them about it, but there was just nothing that ever popped up."Investigators obtained the arrest warrant in the case on April 25 while Rubell was in the Tarrant County Jail on unrelated charges.Jail records show Rubell has been in the jail since April 30, 2011, on two charges of burglary of a habitation and single charges of aggravated robbery, possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.Those cases are still pending, court records show.'She was ... sunshine'Lee said Wednesday that she was very happy to learn that police had a suspect in her sister's death. She has been regularly calling Haltom City police to check on the case."I felt it was my responsibility to make sure nobody forgot about her, and I knew it was a very hard case," said Lee, who lives in Nebo, N.C.Lee said her sister and two other siblings were children when the family immigrated to the United States from Laos. Maokhamphiou was the eldest, her sister said.Her sister was the warm, motherly type who organized the family for holiday gatherings, Lee said."She never had an enemy her whole life," Lee said. "She was a little sunshine to all of us. She makes everyone happy in her presence and it's not the same without her."Staff writer Bill Miller contributed to this report.Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655; Twitter: @deannaboyd
