Prosecution testimony is slated to wrap up this week in the retrial of a Jurupa Valley man accused of severely beating his girlfriend with a tire iron, then snatching their year-old son and driving miles away while still enraged.
Armando Julio Alvarado Ramirez, 46, is charged with attempted murder and making criminal threats, with sentence-enhancing allegations of using a deadly weapon during a felony and inflicting great bodily injury in an act of domestic abuse. During an earlier trial last September, a separate jury convicted Ramirez of domestic violence, assault with a deadly weapon and child cruelty. That jury deadlocked on the remaining charges.
The defendant is being retried on the unresolved counts. Testimony in the second trial began last week. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jerry Yang directed jurors to return to the Riverside Hall of Justice Monday, at which point testimony resumed.
The final prosecution witness is expected to be called Thursday.
Ramirez is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center.
According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, Ramirez and his girlfriend, identified in court documents only as “D.N.,” had two children together, then-1-year-old Bradley and another child, identified only as a 6-year-old.
On the morning of Aug. 15, 2022, they were all riding in the family’s 2000 Dodge Caravan to a bus stop in the 2000 block of Gail Drive, where the older child was dropped off. An argument erupted between the couple, whose relationship had been rocky for some time, and D.N. informed Ramirez that she intended to leave him, the brief said.
She then exited the vehicle, telling the defendant that she intended to walk home with their son.
“Ramirez grabbed a tire iron and began to strike D.N., making contact approximately six to seven times,” according to the narrative. “As the defendant was delivering the strikes to D.N.’s head, he threatened that `I am going to kill you, and I am going to take the children!'”
Before the critically injured woman could open the back door to the Caravan and grab Bradley, Ramirez sped away, the brief alleged.
A passer-by heard her screaming and went to her aid, calling 911. The witness found a plastic chair and placed the victim in it before she passed out, according to the prosecution. Sheriff’s deputies and paramedics arrived minutes later, finding D.N. “barely conscious with blood dripping down her face and all over her clothes,” court papers said.
She managed to tell them who had assaulted her and the vehicle he was driving with the toddler on board.
An Amber Alert was issued by the California Highway Patrol, notifying the public to be on the lookout for Ramirez and the Caravan.
The defendant drove to Ontario, where he ran out of gas and had to call his employer to ask for money to refill the tank. Afterward, he headed to Zapata’s Mexican Food Restaurant in Moreno Valley, where he knew several people. He tried to sell them a car battery, but they declined, and he left with Bradley, prosecutors said.
He stopped a short time later and parked outside a residence in the 22000 block of Ramona Avenue in Nuevo. When he saw a sheriff’s patrol unit turning the corner, he darted toward the house with his son, asking the occupant “if he could leave the child with them for a while,” according to the brief.
He then stepped into the house and tried to hide, prompting the occupant to flag down the patrol car, culminating in Ramirez’s arrest minutes later without further incident. Bradley wasn’t hurt.
During an interview with detectives, the defendant insisted that he did not strike D.N. until she slapped him, which caused him to lose his temper, the brief said.
The woman suffered a brain hemorrhage, three broken fingers and multiple lacerations. She spent months recovering, according to the prosecution.
Ramirez had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.