American man charged with murdering Kenyan nurse June Onkundi has a history of assaulting women

According to WRAL News, Gomes, who is facing a first-degree murder charge, had only been out of prison for four months before killing Ms Onkundi at the Freedom House Recovery Center in North Durham.

The murder suspect, according to court documents, had assaulted a different female employee who had tried to assist him.

WRAL News reports that the suspect has a history of assaulting women, most notably in 2005 while working as a janitor at Durham's Merrick-Moore Elementary School.

"In March 2019, Gomes attacked a clinical social worker at a Duke Health facility. In the court file, WRAL News found a letter the victim, in that case, wrote to the court, warning of how dangerous she believed Gomes was.

It reads in part, "I was thrown to the ground, punched in the nose and face, and strangled until I was blue almost blacking out. Had staff not been able to get to me in time, I may not be alive today... I would ask the court to ensure that Mr Gomes is imprisoned for the maximum time allowed."

According to court records, Gomes was not imprisoned for the maximum time allowed. The maximum sentence means Gomes would have had a release date sometime next month.

June Onkundi who worked at the Freedom House recovery centre, a non-profit behavioural healthcare agency, was allegedly stabbed in her own office on Tuesday, October 18.

Onkundi had worked as a nurse in the healthcare industry for years but had started working at the recovery centre about three months ago.

According to her relatives, she travelled to the US when she was 19 years old to pursue her dreams. 

The deceased's brother Onditi Nunda said that she was gone far too soon, faulting the facility for not installing workplace safety measures which he argued would have saved their loved one.

"This is a dream that has been cut short. She felt that this was actually her calling and so I think she could also be informed by her faith and background in serving this underserved community,' he said.

"How did this happen because you would expect that there is workplace safety. The system let all of us down, the system let June down."

Another relative Andrew Nyabwari mourned Onkundi as a zealous individual who loved her job and tend to the underserved populous.