North Texas woman sentenced to life in prison for starvation death of 10-year-old stepson

FoxNews.com

July 23, 2014

DALLAS – A North Texas jury on Wednesday sentenced a woman to life in prison for the 2011 starvation death of her 10-year-old stepson.

Elizabeth Ramsey, 33, must serve 30 years in prison before she becomes eligible for parole. The Dallas County jury imposed the sentence a day after taking less than an hour to find Ramsey guilty of intentional serious injury to a child in the death of Johnathan Ramsey.

Ramsey's husband, 35-year-old Aaron Ramsey, the father of the child, already is serving a life sentence in the death.

Prosecutors say the two locked the boy in his room, slowly starved him on a diet of bread and water, and dumped his emaciated body in a rural area south of Dallas in 2011. The body was found the next year in a creek.

Elizabeth Ramsey's attorneys had argued her husband kept her from reporting Johnathan's ordeal.

The boy's grandfather, Edward Ramsey, had contacted police early in 2012 to ask them to search for the child because he had not seen the boy for more than a year. The boy's biological mother, Judy Williams, and other relatives had not seen him for months. Williams lives in New Mexico and has custody of the couple's other son, according to relatives.

Police said Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey initially said the boy had gone to live with his mother but later confessed to starving the boy.

According to police, Aaron Ramsey said he put his son on "military rations" because the boy began to misbehave early last year. Ramsey said the boy had punched his stepmother in the stomach when she was pregnant, causing a miscarriage. Ramsey said he hit Johnathan in the chest and then locked him in a bedroom, according to court records.

Jurors in Elizabeth Ramsey's trial heard testimony that Ramsey was not pregnant after all.

Johnathan was found lying on the bedroom floor in August, according to court records. Aaron Ramsey told detectives he changed his son into his favorite T-shirt, placed him in a sleeping bag and inserted a dryer sheet to mask the smell of his body, the records said.
 

Stepmother found guilty of starving 10-year-old son who weighed just 60 lbs and dumping his emaciated body in the woods

• Elizabeth Ramsey, 33, found guilty of intentional serious injury to a child in Johnathan Ramsey's death

• The little boy, who has Asperger Syndrome, weighed 60lb when he died and ate his own feces in desperation

• Sentencing begins today, she could face life in prison

• The boy's 35-year-old father, Aaron Ramsey, is serving a life sentence

• The two locked the boy in his room at the family's Dallas home, starved him on a diet of bread and water and dumped his body in a rural area

By Associated Press and Louise Boyle - DailyMail.com

July 22, 2014

A jury took less than an hour to find a woman guilty on Tuesday in the 2011 starvation death of her ten-year-old stepson.

The Dallas County jury found Elizabeth Ramsey, 33, guilty of intentional serious injury to a child in Johnathan Ramsey's death. The child weighed just 60lb when he died and in desperation, had eaten his own feces.

Jurors will hear testimony today in the sentencing phase of Ramsey's trial and could sentence her to a maximum of life imprisonment.

The boy's 35-year-old father, Aaron Ramsey, is serving a life sentence already.

Prosecutors said the two locked the boy in his room at the family's Dallas, Texas home, then slowly starved him on a diet of bread and water or milk and dumped his emaciated body in a rural area south of Dallas in 2011. The body was found the next year in a creek.

The stepmother's attorneys asserted that her husband kept her from reporting her stepson's ordeal.

Ramsey's lawyers had asked jurors to find her guilty of a lesser charge, arguing that Aaron Ramsey was the instigator and she was forced to participate in the crime.

Prosecutors blamed the couple equally for Johnathan’s death. Witnesses described Elizabeth Ramsey as a habitual liar with a hot temper.

Johnathan's grandfather, Edward Ramsey, had contacted police early in 2012 to ask them to search for the child because he had not seen the boy for more than a year.

The boy's biological mother, Judy Williams, and other relatives did not see him for months.

Williams lives in New Mexico and has custody of the couple's other son, according to relatives.

Police said Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey, the child's stepmother, initially claimed the boy had gone to live with his mother but later confessed to starving the boy to death.

According to police, Aaron Ramsey said he put his son on 'military rations' because the boy began to misbehave early last year.

Ramsey said the boy had punched his stepmother in the stomach when she was pregnant, causing a miscarriage.

Johnathan’s schoolteacher Carrie Liska said that the child was never violent but quiet and sweet.

She told the Dallas News that Johnathan didn't play much with other children which could be attributed to his Asperger syndrome.

Ramsey said he hit Johnathan in the chest and then locked him in a bedroom, according to the records.

Jurors in Elizabeth Ramsey's trial heard testimony that Ramsey was not pregnant after all.

Relatives told Dallas News on Monday that Elizabeth Ramsey was known for making up lies, at one point claiming to be an FBI agent and earning her doctorate at college.

Elizabeth Ramsey grew up believing that her mother was her sister after she was adopted by her maternal grandparents as a baby.

Her biological mother Kathleen Pate, who blew kisses to Ramsey from the stand, told the court on Monday that her daughter lied frequently and had a very short temper, according to the Dallas News.

Johnathan was found lying on the bedroom floor in August, according to court records.

Aaron Ramsey told detectives he changed his son into his favorite T-shirt, placed him into a sleeping bag and inserted a dryer sheet to mask the smell of his body, the records said.
 

Woman accused of starving stepson to death was a chronic liar, relatives said Monday

By Tasha Tsiaperas - DallasNews.com

July 21, 2014

A woman accused of starving her 10-year-old stepson to death was known for telling countless outlandish lies, family members said in court Monday.

Elizabeth Ramsey, 33, is charged with injury to a child in the death of Johnathan Ramsey, whose remains were found dumped in an Ellis County creek bed in April 2012. He died the previous August. Aaron Ramsey, the boy’s father, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last year.

Prosecutors say the Ramseys starved Johnathan over several months in their northeast Dallas home.

Relatives said Monday that Elizabeth Ramsey was known for making up stories about her life. At one point, she claimed to be an FBI agent and said she was going to school to earn her doctorate. In an email she sent Aaron Ramsey’s mother, she wrote about having an advanced term miscarriage of triplets, according to court testimony Monday.

“Over the years your daughter has made up stories about things. Is that true?” said Prosecutor Eren Price.

“True,” responded Ralph Brinkley, Elizabeth Ramsey’s adoptive father.

Elizabeth Ramsey was adopted by her maternal grandparents when she was an infant. She grew up believing her mother was her sister.

“She’s always had a pretty short fuse and would get mad pretty easy,” said Kathleen Pate, Elizabeth Ramsey’s biological mother.

Pate heard her daughter claim to be pregnant with triplets at Thanksgiving dinner in 2010. She offered to pay for a sonogram for her daughter, but Elizabeth Ramsey got angry, Pate said.

No one in the family questioned the story even though they knew it was a lie, because they were afraid of the woman’s temper, Pate said.

“She just exploded like a time bomb,” she said.

When Pate took the witness stand Monday, she and her daughter blew kisses to each other.

Investigators testified Monday about finding Johnathan’s skeletal remains wrapped in a blue sleeping bag at the bottom of a creek in April 2012. All that remained of the boy were bones, pajama pants and a disintegrating T-shirt, according to testimony.

A cause of death couldn’t be determined from the bones, but the boy’s death was ruled homicide by the Dallas County medical examiner.

The sleeping bag was unrolled and placed on a table in the courtroom Monday. The pajama pants covered in football team logos was also spread out for the jury to see. Elizabeth Ramsey turned her head away from the table and could be heard crying.

FBI special agent Chris Ford described the drained creek bed where the sleeping bag was found as full of trash and debris.

“And a sleeping bag with a 10-year-old boy?” Price said.

“Unfortunately,” Ford said.

Testimony in the trial will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning before state District Judge Don Adams.

 

Police: Stepmother of starved boy had called 911 for other reasons during year child died

By Christina Rosales - DallasNews.com

Elizabeth Ramsey had no problem calling police for other reasons during 2011, the year her stepson starved to death, a Dallas police detective testified in court Friday morning.

“I should have called 911 or CPS,” Ramsey wrote in a 2012 affidavit when authorities learned of the death of the boy.

Ramsey, 33, is charged with injury to a child in the death of Johnathan Ramsey, 10 at the time. Police found his remains wrapped in a sleeping bag in a creek in an Ellis County creek bed in April 2012. Johnathan died in August 2011.

Detective Daniel Greene testified Friday that the stepmother had called 911 from their Northeast Dallas home in early 2011 about random gunfire. A few months later, she called to report a burglary in progress. It ended up being her husband entering the home, Greene testified.

There were never calls regarding Johnathan, according to court testimony.

Johnathan’s father, Aaron Ramsey, was found guilty last year of injury to a child in the case and sentenced to life in prison. Elizabeth Ramsey’s defense attorney said the father is responsible for the death of the boy.

“Aaron Ramsey was the monster,” attorney Paul Johnson said earlier this week. “He drug this young woman into this scheme…She wanted to call 911 but he [Aaron Ramsey] wouldn’t let her.”

Defense attorney for woman accused of starving 10-year-old stepson to death blames the boy’s father

By Tasha Tsiaperas - DallasNews.com

The defense attorney of a woman accused of starving her 10-year-old stepson says the blame falls on the boy’s father.

“Aaron Ramsey was the monster. He drug this young woman into this scheme,” defense attorney Paul Johnson said during opening statements in the trial of 33-year-old Elizabeth Ramsey. She is charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury.

Johnson said Elizabeth Ramsey is guilty of a lesser crime with a lesser charge: reckless injury to a child. Aaron Ramsey was sentenced last year to life in prison for the death of his son, Johnathan Ramsey.

The couple is accused of locking the boy in a bedroom and only feeding him bread and water until he died from starvation. But Johnson said that Elizabeth Ramsey tried to intervene to protect the boy.

“She wanted to call 911 but he [Aaron Ramsey] wouldn’t let her,” Johnson said.

He said that Aaron Ramsey was a mama’s boy who was attracted to quiet women, like Elizabeth Ramsey.

“Elizabeth Ramsey is an odd duck, a loner … always lived in a dream world, a fantasy world,” Johnson said.

But prosecutor Eren Price said Elizabeth Ramsey was an active participant in the military rations and padlocked bedroom door.

“I am not here to tell you she acted alone. There are two people responsible for the death of Johnathan Ramsey,” Price said during opening statements.

The couple kept the boy away from “anyone who gave a darn about him,” Price said. They told lies about why family members couldn’t see Johnathan Ramsey — he was on a Boy Scout trip, he was at school, he was playing.

After more than a year of being kept away, Ed Ramsey, Aaron Ramsey’s father, called Dallas police to do a welfare check on his grandson in March 2012.

“There comes a point when you understand that they’re putting you off,” Ed Ramsey testified Wednesday.

After police went to the couple’s home and questioned them about Johnathan Ramsey, Elizabeth and Aaron Ramsey told officers the boy was dead, according to court testimony.

His skeletal remains were found in April 2012 wrapped in a sleeping bag in a wooded area in Ennis.

Original post at 7:05 a.m.: Testimony begins Wednesday morning in the trial for a woman accused of starving her 10-year-old stepson to death and then dumping his body in an Ellis County creek bed.

Elizabeth Ramsey, 33, is charged with injury to a child with serious bodily injury. She faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Her husband, Aaron Ramsey, was sentenced last year to life in prison for the death of his son, Johnathan Ramsey. He locked Johnathan in a bedroom in the family’s northeast Dallas home, feeding him only bread and water.

The boy’s remains were found wrapped in a sleeping bag in April 2012 in a wooded area in Ennis. Medical experts estimated Johnathan died more than seven months earlier.

Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey married in 2010 and moved to Dallas in January 2011, according to testimony during Aaron Ramsey’s trial.

In a recorded police interview played during Aaron Ramsey’s trial, Elizabeth Ramsey said she played a role in the boy’s death.

“I admit I should have done more,” she said during the interview. “In my eyes, I’m as guilty as Aaron,” she said.

Testimony begins at 9 a.m. before Judge Don Adams, who also heard testimony in Aaron Ramsey’s trial.

 

Ellis County JP: Found Remains Confirmed To Be Missing Dallas Boy

By L.P. Phillips - CBSlocal.com

April 25, 2012

An Ellis County Justice of the Peace said the human remains recovered last weekend by police and FBI agents are those of a missing Dallas boy who is believed to have been starved and dumped near Ennis.

“They’ve positively identified this boy as Johnathan Lloyd Ramsey. It’s been deemed a homicide,” said Ellis County Justice of the Peace Bill Woody.

The autopsy was performed by the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office, however Dallas Police Department spokesman Scott Walton disputes Woody’s claim. In an email, Walton says positive identification of the remains could take several weeks “since DNA testing is required.”

The 11-year-old boy had been missing for more than a year. Relatives said that they repeatedly asked about the child’s whereabouts, but his father, 34-year-old Aaron Ramsey, and his stepmother, 31-year-old Elizabeth Ramsey, repeatedly gave excuses as to why Johnathan was not at home.

A grandfather ultimately contacted the Dallas Police Department, which immediately began an investigation.

Both Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey were arrested on March 30 for the felony of injury to a child. Both are still being held on $500,000 bond.

The news was expected, yet bitter for Judy Williams, the child’s biological mother. “I just need to just go from here and put my child to rest,” said Williams. “Hopefully we’ll have some closure.”

Police suspect that the couple starved the boy to death as punishment. They were tipped off to a possible crime on March 29. An affidavit of arrest says that the child’s maternal grandfather requested a welfare check. The affidavit says that the suspected couple tried to explain the child’s absence by claiming that Johnathan was living with Williams in New Mexico.

However, the affidavit says that Aaron Ramsey ultimately explained that the boy had starved to death after he was punished.

Aaron Ramsey claimed to police that Johnathan had become violent and had punched Elizabeth Ramsey in the stomach, causing her to miscarry triplets. According to the affidavit, Aaron Ramsey put the dead boy “in a sleeping bag and threw a dryer sheet inside the sleeping bag for the smell. [Aaron Ramsey] then carried [Johnathan] next door to a vacant house and put him into the storm shelter where he left him for one or two days.”

The affidavit goes on, claiming that Aaron Ramsey then “transported him to Ennis, Texas where he dumped the body. The suspect led detectives to the location where he dumped the complainants’ body.”

There is a chance that a murder charge could be added, although that is the same classification of felony as injury to a child.

“I hope the injury to a child is upgraded to murder, and maybe possibly the death penalty, for what he did to my son,” said Williams.

The Associated Press reported that the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office wouldn’t immediately say whether charges would be upgraded.


 

Ramsey's husband, 35-year-old Aaron Ramsey, the father of the child,
 already is serving a life sentence in the death.

The victim

Johnathan Ramsey, 10.