HOUSTON – A man who was convicted of stabbing his ex-wife nearly three decades ago was sentenced to 60 years in prison for fatally stabbing his girlfriend in 2019, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Wednesday.
On Monday, Kenneth B. Howard, 64, was convicted of murder in the stabbing death of 37-year-old Pamela D. Pratt because she wanted to break up.
Recommended Videos
“The most dangerous time for a victim of domestic violence is when they are trying to leave the relationship,” Ogg said. “That is exactly why we take any and all allegations of domestic violence so seriously.”
Pratt, a mother of three, was in a dating relationship with Howard when he persuaded her to leave Dallas and move in with him in Houston, according to prosecutors.
Authorities said the relationship became violent, and, at some point, Howard shot at Pratt’s 18-year-old son. He was out on bond for that charge when he committed the murder, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, on July 12, 2019, Howard was driving Pratt when the two got into an argument about her leaving. He stabbed the woman at least four times in the chest and neck and, instead of taking her to the hospital, drove around for at least an hour before going home and calling the Houston Police Department. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in its news release about the case that Howard initially told officers that Pratt pulled a knife on him, but later admitted that he got the knife away from her and stabbed her, even though she was not a threat to him.
Assistant District Attorney Anthony Osso, who prosecuted the case with ADA Jarrell Gibson, said Howard had a history of using violence to coerce people in his life, especially women he was dating.
“He brought this family down from Dallas and when the abuse started, they decided they wanted to leave and he didn’t like that,” Osso said. “There’s a family that doesn’t have their mother anymore, and we know what he’s capable of, so we argued that he shouldn’t be allowed to do this to anyone ever again.”
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office noted in its news release that, in 1984, Howard had also been convicted of stabbing his ex-wife seven times. That woman survived.