Joaquin Ruiz-Figueroa, a 47-year-old Hispanic man from Augusta, Georgia, died on May 1, 2018, after what authorities described as a horrific attack that began inside the home he shared with other men and ended with his body discarded in the woods. What started as an altercation in the 3300 block of Milledgeville Road turned into a killing so brutal that it stayed with the case for years afterward.
Investigators said Ruiz-Figueroa was confronted by his roommates, Maurice Jenkins and Keith Andrew Kearney, and the violence escalated far beyond a fight.
According to prosecutors, the two men beat Ruiz-Figueroa with their fists, a baseball bat, and a large automotive tool. The assault did not stop there. Authorities said Jenkins then used a two-shot Derringer pistol and shot Ruiz-Figueroa twice in the head at close range. Afterward, the men allegedly wrapped him in a tarp and moved his body into a wooded area, trying to leave him there as if the crime itself could be buried with him. Instead, the details began to surface when Kearney reportedly told his brother what had happened, and that brother contacted 911. That call led deputies to the scene and quickly turned the case from a missing or unexplained death into a murder investigation.
Both Maurice Jenkins and Keith Andrew Kearney were identified as suspects and were arrested in connection with Ruiz-Figueroa’s death. For Ruiz-Figueroa’s family, the case became a long wait for accountability. Kearney never made it to trial; reports say he died of cancer in 2020 while the case against him was still pending. That left Jenkins as the remaining defendant to face a jury.
Years after the killing, Jenkins was tried in Richmond County. After a four-day trial, a jury found him guilty in connection with Ruiz-Figueroa’s death. Reports on the case say he was convicted of felony murder and a firearm charge tied to the crime, and he was later sentenced to life in prison, with an additional five years for the gun offense. By the time the verdict was handed down, more than four years had passed since Ruiz-Figueroa was killed, but the case finally had the outcome his family had been waiting for: one suspect dead before trial, the other convicted and sent away for life for a murder that began with a roommate dispute and ended in extraordinary violence.
