Jeffery Kendall was sentenced after a jury convicted him of killing Brittany Ligdis as their young son was present.

MARTINEZ, Calif. — A Contra Costa County judge sentenced Jeffery Kendall to 50 years to life in prison for the 2024 murder of Brittany Elizabeth Ligdis, closing the trial stage of a case in which prosecutors said a 911 call captured the killing as the couple’s 4-year-old son was nearby. Judge Glenn Kim imposed two consecutive terms of 25 years to life on July 31, 2026, after Kendall was convicted of first-degree murder and child endangerment.

The sentence followed a May 7 jury verdict against Kendall, now 39, for killing Ligdis, 30, on Feb. 16, 2024, at her home in Pinole. Prosecutors said Ligdis had ended their relationship 10 days earlier. The district attorney’s office argued at sentencing that the circumstances called for a harsher punishment, pointing to the presence of the child and the way the killing unfolded. Kendall also faced a separate weapons count that was decided by the judge rather than the jury.

According to prosecutors, Ligdis called 911 after Kendall broke into her home that morning. She told dispatchers she had taken shelter in a laundry room with the couple’s son. About 90 seconds into the call, Kendall entered the room. The recording captured Ligdis telling him to let go of her and saying he was frightening the child before she shouted for him to stop. Prosecutors said Kendall then shot her once in the head. Their son cried out for his mother and ran from the room.

Responding Pinole officers found Ligdis dead from a gunshot wound. Investigators quickly identified Kendall as a suspect after home surveillance video showed him leaving the area, according to earlier police accounts. Officers issued an alert for his Hyundai Elantra. Later that day, California Highway Patrol officers located the vehicle and took Kendall into custody after a traffic stop. The arrest moved the case from an emergency response in a residential neighborhood to a homicide prosecution that would take more than two years to reach a jury.

The prosecution’s sentencing argument focused heavily on the circumstances surrounding the child. Deputy District Attorney Tylyn Wells described the shooting as an “execution in front of a 4-year-old child” and rejected the idea that it should be viewed simply as an isolated mental break. The district attorney’s office said Wells instead framed the killing as consistent with a pattern in which danger can escalate after a partner decides to leave a relationship. The office did not present that broader pattern as a substitute for the evidence in Kendall’s case; it was part of its argument for the sentence imposed.

The child-endangerment conviction was separate from the murder count. Jurors found Kendall guilty of placing the couple’s son in circumstances that threatened his safety. The boy was physically uninjured, but family members later described serious emotional effects. Ligdis’ aunt, Nancy O’Neil, told KTVU in 2024 that the child repeatedly said his mother was dead. The family said he was staying with relatives after the killing. Public reporting has not provided detailed information about his life since then, and his privacy remains important because he is a minor.

Kendall’s weapons charge followed a different path. Before trial, the defense successfully asked that the assault-weapon count be tried to the court instead of the jury. Judge Kim later found Kendall guilty of possessing an assault weapon. Prosecutors said the weapon was a 3D-printed pistol capable of semiautomatic fire. The judge also found six aggravating factors connected with that offense to be true. The district attorney’s release did not provide a full technical description of the firearm or explain every aggravating factor in its public summary.

At the July sentencing hearing, Kim called the case one of the most difficult he had experienced, according to prosecutors. In addition to the prison term, he restricted Kendall’s contact with his son. Kendall is barred from contacting the child until November 2035, when the boy turns 16, except in limited circumstances approved by the court. That order gives the sentence a family-law dimension beyond the prison term, though the public record summarized by prosecutors does not spell out what circumstances might lead a court to approve contact.

The murder happened as Ligdis was working toward a different future. Friends told KTVU after her death that she was studying at Diablo Valley College and hoped to become a nurse. Her friend and fellow student Kassandra Santiago remembered Ligdis as someone who cared deeply about nursing and helped classmates. Santiago also said Ligdis had expressed concern about Kendall’s behavior after the breakup, telling her friend that he was unpredictable. Those remarks were reported after the killing and offered a glimpse of Ligdis’ state of mind shortly before her death.

Her academic work did not disappear with the criminal case. In May 2024, about three months after the shooting, Ligdis’ family attended Diablo Valley College’s graduation ceremony in Pleasant Hill, where degrees were awarded to her posthumously. KTVU reported that her mother accepted them during a ceremony attended by students who had known Ligdis. Santiago said at the time that she believed her friend would have been proud. The moment became a public reminder that Ligdis was not only the victim named in a murder case but also a mother and student nearing an important milestone.

Early coverage of the case initially described Kendall as an accused killer facing murder, child-cruelty and weapons charges. The May 2026 verdict changed that legal posture. Jurors found him guilty of first-degree murder and child endangerment, and the court separately found him guilty on the assault-weapon count. The sentencing hearing then resolved the principal punishment question. The district attorney’s office said the two 25-years-to-life terms would run consecutively, producing the 50-years-to-life sentence.

The case also shows how different forms of evidence can converge in a prosecution. The 911 recording documented Ligdis’ attempt to get help and captured the confrontation inside the home. Surveillance video helped police identify Kendall and track his departure, according to earlier reporting. The child’s presence formed the basis for a separate endangerment conviction, while the firearm led to an additional bench-trial finding. Together, those elements shaped both the verdicts and the prosecution’s request for a sentence at the upper end of Kendall’s exposure.

For Ligdis’ family, the sentence came more than two years after her death and after a period that included the investigation, criminal proceedings and the college ceremony honoring her work. Public statements from relatives and friends have focused on her role as a mother, her nursing studies and the effect of the killing on her son. The court’s sentence cannot alter those losses, but it establishes Kendall’s punishment under the convictions returned in 2026 and places long-term limits on his ability to contact the child who was present at the crime scene.

With the prison term now imposed, the case moves from Contra Costa County Superior Court into the state corrections system. Kendall was being held in county jail pending transfer to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation after the July 31 sentencing. The judgment leaves him serving two consecutive terms of 25 years to life, while the court’s separate order limits contact with his son until November 2035. Those orders represent the principal legal consequences of the convictions returned against him in May.

Author note: Last updated September 9, 2026.