NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Kayla Hamilton never graduated from Norview High School, but that never stopped her from dreaming of a future that would include a decent job, a nice car and an apartment large enough for her, her boyfriend and her treasured JoJo Siwa merchandise collection.
After a heart-to-heart talk with her mother, Hamilton, at 19, packed her bags and said goodbye to her family and the strangely comforting sounds of frequent jet noise near the world’s largest naval base. She had experience in retail and warehouse operations and she hoped her work history in Hampton Roads would look impressive on job applications in larger cities near Aberdeen, Maryland.
Hamilton and her boyfriend settled in a single room in a trailer home. The owner rented rooms to others, including a teenager from El Salvador. Hamilton’s mother, Tammy Nobles, would call or text daily just to check on her only daughter.
On July 24, 2022, Kayla Hamilton celebrated her 20th birthday in Aberdeen. Her mother sent well wishes via Facebook.
Nobles read the message to 10 on Your Side in a recent interview.
“Happy birthday, baby girl. I am so proud of the woman that you were becoming. I hope you have a great day.“
Facebook message from July 24, 2022
“My baby girl did not know that her life was going to be ending three days later while she was sleeping,” Nobles said.
On July 27, Hamilton was killed by a fellow tenant from El Salvador who had entered the United States months earlier.
“He broke into her room,” Nobles said. “And of course, it woke her up.”
She was sleeping in her bed and woke up, grabbing her phone and dialed her boyfriend. Hamilton’s last phone call went to voicemail while her boyfriend was at his place of employment, where phones were not allowed inside the building.
“The voicemail, I never listen to it, but it was two minutes and 30 seconds long of him struggling,” Nobles said. “It showed a struggle. And him strangling her in her last moments.”
Nobles has shared details of those last moments with national newscasters and a talk show personality. She said her tearful interview with 10 On Your Side was the first for a news organization in Kayla’s hometown.
“Three days [after her birthday], while she was sleeping, that monster broke into her room and strangled her,” Nobles said. And Kayla fought for her life that day, and she fought hard because of all the defensive wounds she had on her.”
And an open phone line captured those tragic last moments.
“There was a struggle going on,” Nobles said, “and her boyfriend didn’t answer the phone because it was in the truck because he was working and it was caught on voice mail. And then after he [fellow tenant] killed her, he sexually assaulted her and just left her on the floor like trash and robbed her of $6, and then went to lunch with his half-brother and to Walmart and Target and bought a couple of earrings.”
Before her daughter died, Nobles was not politically involved in the U.S. immigration debate, saying, “I thought they were doing the right thing and checking and vetting those that are coming here.”
Attorneys for Nobles said the killer, Walter Javier Martinez, 16, was a known MS-13 gang member and confessed to killing Hamilton.
Martinez was arrested in Edgewood, Maryland on Jan. 15, 2023. Aberdeen police determined Martinez was an undocumented immigrant. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 70 years behind bars.
Nobles testified last September before the House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement, saying the then-Biden administration was not putting American citizens’ safety first while putting her own daughter’s life at risk by allowing a known gang member into the country.
The first bill President Trump signed in his second term, the Laken Riley Act, mandates the federal detention of illegal immigrants who are accused of theft, burglary, assaulting a law enforcement officer and any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury.
In a first, Nobles is suing the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services for wrongful death. The suit cites negligence and flagrant failures.
The lawsuit alleges that, had agents at the border simply lifted Martinez’s shirt, they would have seen MS-13 gang tattoos. The lawsuit maintains that Martinez would have been denied entry and Hamilton would be alive today. The lawsuit also states that the Department of Health and Human Services allowed Martinez to roam the country until he murdered Hamilton.
Nobles is seeking $100 million in damages for the death of her daughter, whose remains were laid to rest near loved ones at Rosewood Memorial Park in Virginia Beach.
Nobles said she will not rest until justice for Kayla is served. She has established a GoFundMe to help with legal and other expenses.
“No parent should ever have to go through what I have,” Nobles said. “That’s why I’m making a change so no parent will have to go through what I’m going through.”
