A rejected marriage proposal is believed to be the motive of a man accused of fatally stabbing his aunt and girlfriend in a gruesome, bloody attack.
The capital murder trial against Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, who was 33 at the time of the stabbings, began Monday, Aug. 17, in the deaths of his 79-year-old aunt Irma Ramirez and his 24-year-old girlfriend Kathia Rosales. Gabriel Ramirez is facing one count each of capital murder and murder.
Irma Ramirez died as she talked on the phone with emergency dispatchers while she was being attacked on Christmas Day 2022. Rosales’ body was found the next day in a car.
“A lady calls screaming, saying that she’s being stabbed,” Assistant District Attorney Josh Avila said during opening statements. “And she makes a final yell before the call goes dead. When officers arrive, they come across a very bloody scene.”
El Paso Police Department detectives believe Gabriel Ramirez and Rosales had started “a relationship or they had something going on” in the days or weeks before the fatal stabbings, said Avila, who is prosecuting the case with Assistant District Attorney Hassan Hassan.
“Gabriel Ramirez asked Kathia Rosales to marry him and something triggered him to the point that that caused an attack on Kathia Rosales,” Avila said.
Attorneys Francisco F. Macias and Luis Yañez, who are representing Gabriel Ramirez, countered that evidence will show their client is innocent, including the aunt’s 911 call. They argued that if Gabriel Ramirez had committed the murder, the aunt would have said his name in the 911 call.
“I’m going to ask you to pay special attention to that particular 911 call because it’s not going to say, ‘My nephew is attacking me with a knife,'” Macias said. “You’re not going to hear that 911 call say, ‘Gabriel is attacking me with a knife.’ You’re going to find that it says that someone is attacking me with a knife or words to that effect.”
He continued, “I feel this will indicate to you and convince you that it wasn’t my client who was attacking her. It was someone else. Because if it would’ve been my client, this woman, Irma Ramirez, was like a mother to this young man, she would have said, “Gabriel, what are you doing? Gabriel, stop it. Gabriel, he’s attacking me with a knife.”
Judge Patricia C. Baca of the 346th District Court is presiding over the trial at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in Downtown El Paso.
Aunt, girlfriend found stabbed to death
El Paso Police Department officers responded to Irma Ramirez’s 911 call about 5 p.m. Dec. 25, 2022 at a home in the 3700 block of Truman Avenue in Central El Paso.
The officers found Irma Ramirez on the floor of her kitchen with a stab wound to her chest. She was found with “no pulse or signs of life,” next to a pool of blood and vomit. A large kitchen knife covered in blood was found next to Irma Ramirez, El Paso Police Department Officer Edward Shukitt testified.
Neighbors told officers Irma Ramirez’s car was missing and was usually driven by Gabriel Ramirez.
Suspect found covered in blood, wounds next day
As police searched for the missing car, officers responded to a 911 call about a man who was bleeding and trying to get water out of a hose at a house in the 500 block of Gregory Avenue in the Kern Place neighborhood in West El Paso.
Police and El Paso Fire Department personnel responded to the house. Gabriel Ramirez had “a clear cut to his neck and two clear cuts to his wrists,” Avila said.
As paramedics were treating Gabriel Ramirez, a firefighter saw the missing car and noticed a body inside. He opened the car door and found Rosales’ body. She had “a distinct cut to the neck, to the jugular area, as well as a cut to her stomach where her intestines are shown,” Avila said.
Testimony in the trial continued Monday afternoon, with dozens more witnesses expected to testify in the upcoming days. If convicted on the capital murder charge, Gabriel Ramirez will automatically be sentenced to life in prison since the El Paso District Attorney’s Office is not seeking the death penalty.
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Prosecutors outline motive in gruesome El Paso double-stabbing case
Reporting by Aaron Martinez, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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By Aaron Martinez, El Paso Times | USA TODAY Network
