Last updated: 12:57 p.m. Judge Katherine Gorman has found 22-year-old Jose Ramirez of Princeville guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents.
Ramirez was charged with beating and stabbing his parents to death in October 2018. Both were Bradley University employees. Susan Brill de Ramirez was an English professor and Antonio Ramirez Barron worked in the information technology department.
During closing arguments, the prosecution said it's rare to have a murder trial where the defendant so clearly and repeatedly stated their intent to kill.
Ramirez pleaded not guilty. But during the first day of testimony, the court saw video of him admitting to detectives that he snuck into the house while his parents were sleeping, pepper-sprayed them, beat them with a baseball bat and stabbed them twice in the stomach and neck.
Ramirez told detectives he’d thought about his parents dying before, but hadn’t planned the murder until the week of. He also told them he had suicidal thoughts almost all the time.
In a later interview, Ramirez told investigators that 18-year-old Matthew Roberts was with him when he attacked his parents. Roberts, who's being tried separately, is expected to plea next month.
The prosecution also played the 911 call made by Ramirez, attempting to frame his parents’ disappearance as a robbery gone wrong.
Prosecutors noted that Ramirez hadn't tried to call his parents, locate their cars or even look in their bedroom before he called to report them missing because he already knew they were did.
They also argued that Ramirez at no point denied the crime or showed any remorse, pointeing to videos of jailhouse visits Ramirez had with family friends. In one video, Ramirez is asked whether he’d do things the same way again, if given another chance. Ramirez hesitated, but ultimately said no.
Ramirez told the visitors that he knew he was supposed to feel sad or sorry, but he mostly just felt tired.
The defense tried to argue that Ramirez could have been covering for Roberts when he admitted to the murders.
Attorney Hugh Toner said Ramirez was with Roberts and his sister the weekend after the incident. They'd talked about wha happened, Toner said, and Ramirez could have been relaying details from those conversations to investigators.
Toner also suggested the detectives didn't properly follow up on the involvement Roberts and his sister. He said that of the more than 100 pieces of physical evidence submitted by the prosecution, not one could be directly linked to Ramirez -- either because DNA and fingerprint test results were inconclusive or because those tests hadn't been ordered at all.
Ramirez chose not to testify on his own behalf.
In making her decision, Judge Gorman said that although there was some inconsistency in the details of Roberts' role in the crime, "the differences do not sway this court even one scintilla as to Mr. Ramirez's involvement."
Gorman agreed with the prosecution that the 911 call placed by Ramirez "seemed forced, unemotional and unaffected."
Ramirez faces 20 to 60 years in prison for each count of murder. Those sentences could be served consecutively.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 17 at 10:30 a.m.
This story has been updated.
