A judge rules that police did not coerce Nathan Joe Ramirez into giving them a ring they say he took from a woman he is accused of killing.
By ALEX LEARY
Published September 3, 2003
NEW PORT RICHEY - Prosecutors trying to show Nathan Joe Ramirez raped and killed an elderly New Port Richey woman in 1995 got an important boost Tuesday when a judge said he would allow the only piece of physical evidence in the case.
The evidence - a three-stone ring that Ramirez is accused of stealing from the victim, 71-year-old Mildred Boroski - was dismissed last year on the grounds that sheriff's detectives improperly obtained it.
But a state appeals court in July ordered another hearing, and Circuit Judge Daniel Diskey on Tuesday said the gold ring could be admitted at a retrial because, he agreed, there was no sign detectives coerced Ramirez when they showed up at his house in May 1995. The retrial is set to begin this month.
"I would say, judge, that this is as consensual an encounter as one can get," prosecutor Mike Halkitis said Tuesday.
In making his point, Halkitis quoted an appellate judge who said there was no detention, evidence of intimidation or misrepresentations and that, "A reasonable person in Ramirez's position would have felt free to terminate the encounter."
Keith Hammond, Ramirez's attorney, said the detectives had probable cause to arrest his client and should have done so, and then told him he could talk to his parents. Hammond noted that Ramirez was 17 at the time, and detectives did not have a search warrant.
Tuesday's hearing centered on testimony by one of the detectives in the case, Clifford Blum. He said that while in plain clothes, he fully identified himself to Ramirez and asked about the ring, a pair of handcuffs and a firearm.
Ramirez initially denied knowing about the items. But after detectives told him about a recorded phone call between Ramirez and co-defendant Jonathan Grimshaw, in which they discuss the evidence, Ramirez went to his bedroom and retrieved the ring.
Blum also testified that although he knew of the phone recording, he did not know Grimshaw was under arrest.
Grimshaw and Ramirez admitted to taking part in the killing. Grimshaw is serving a life sentence, and Ramirez was sentenced to death.
In 1999, however, the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Ramirez, ruling that detectives tricked Ramirez into confessing by not properly advising him of his rights.
Unable to use the confession, prosecutors were left with the other major component in the case, Boroski's ring. Halkitis says it connects Ramirez to the crime.
The crime happened March 10, 1995, the night of Boroski's 71st birthday. Grimshaw and Ramirez previously testified that they broke into her Seven Springs home to steal gifts. They killed Boroski's poodle with a crowbar then took turns raping Boroski, looted her home and drove her to a field a half-mile away, prosecutors say. They say Ramirez then shot Boroski twice in the head.
