Massachusetts Man Sentenced 25 Years to Life for Second Wife's 2024 Murder, 40 Years After First Spouse Killing

Kenneth Robson, 68, of Springfield pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life for the 2024 killing of his 45-year-old wife, Quitiza Holmes. Police say the attack occurred in the early hours of April 30, 2024, after Robson called 911 saying he had “hit his wife with a hammer” and then surrendered; officers found Holmes face down in a pool of blood with catastrophic head injuries and defensive wounds and recovered a blood-stained hammer. Holmes was hospitalized at Baystate Medical Center and died several weeks later on May 16, 2024. Robson told investigators he had ingested drugs that were not what he expected and blamed their effects for his actions. Robson had been convicted in 1984 of murdering his first wife, Joan Cusson, and members of her family voiced outrage that he was released and later able to kill again. Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni called the attack “brutal and senseless,” expressed condolences to Holmes’s loved ones, and said with the sentence Robson will spend the remainder of his life in prison.