Search results
Dec 19, 2020 · No one was arrested for the murder, and the investigators closed the case without considering any more suspects. Sherri’s parents insisted that Stephanie Lazarus be considered a suspect as they knew she had been intimidating Sherri.
- Crimes
An incident that shook the collective British conscience was...
- Crimes
Feb 15, 2022 · MAYES COUNTY - A Mayes county couple hopes they're one step closer to justice, after their son was murdered four years ago. A jury convicted Michael Ward of first-degree murder and recommended...
Apr 28, 2023 · The mother of an innocent man killed in the Surrey Six slayings more than 15 years ago is steeling herself for a return to court after one of the convicted killers was granted the right to a new ...
- Overview
- ‘The perfect life: A wife and a girlfriend’
- $120,000 legal bill
- ‘He pled guilty … he is guilty’
The judge’s decision was stunning, but so were the allegations.
After the 2014 murder trial of a New York man accused of killing his wife, the judge wrote that the defendant’s lawyer was so unprepared and inexperienced that he relied on Google for help with forensics and pulled questions directly from an Australian web page, “DNA for Defence Lawyers.”
On Oct. 6, 2022, the judge overturned the conviction of Ganesh Ramsaran, 48, and ordered a new trial, citing the defense lawyer’s “egregious” conduct.
Four months ago, that case concluded with a plea agreement. In a courtroom southeast of Syracuse, Ramsaran — former IBM project manager and marathon runner known as “Remy” — pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the disappearance and death more than a decade ago of his wife, Jen Ramsaran, 36.
Remy, who had been serving a 25-to-life prison term, was sentenced to 22 years. Including time he’s already spent behind bars, he’s expected to remain in prison for less than a decade.
But in an exclusive interview with “Dateline,” Remy said he pleaded guilty in Jen’s death only because it was “the smartest thing to do legally.”
Jen, who had three children with Remy, disappeared on Dec. 11, 2012. Remy told “Dateline” that before she vanished, she’d gone shopping in Syracuse, roughly 60 miles from their home in the small town of New Berlin. He’d done some work on a project, then went for a run, he said.
When Remy didn’t hear from her by that night, he called 911 and reported her missing, a transcript of the call shows.
In the days that followed, Remy found Jen’s cellphone in a creek bed using the “Find My iPhone” app, the Chenango County sheriff’s detective who investigated the case, Richard Cobb, told “Dateline” at the time. On Dec. 16, Jen’s father alerted authorities that he had spotted her van — a Chrysler Town & Country — abandoned in a nearby apartment building parking lot.
Jen wasn’t found for another two months, when her remains were spotted at the bottom of a snowy embankment that had begun to thaw, Cobb said.
Her body was so decomposed that medical officials were unable to determine exactly what killed her, the forensic pathologist later testified at trial, but her death was ruled a homicide. On May 17, 2013, six months after Jen vanished, Remy was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder.
Authorities had come to doubt Remy’s account — only one security camera positioned along what he’d described as his running route actually captured him that morning, for instance — and believed the killing was motivated by an obsession-fueled affair Remy had with Jen’s close friend, the prosecutor at the time previously told “Dateline.”
When the murder trial got underway in September 2014, Gilberto Garcia was defending him. Remy had ditched two seasoned criminal defense lawyers for the New Jersey attorney, who Remy’s father said he hired on referral from a friend, according to the judge’s 2022 decision that overturned the conviction.
The family paid Garcia more than $120,000 in the months that followed and believed the lawyer would look into presenting a defense based on cell tower data, according to the decision.
Remy later told “Dateline” he was initially impressed with Garcia, who Remy said recounted doing “all sorts of criminal work.”
But Remy said he was floored when the lawyer put him on the stand without properly preparing him. And Remy was furious when his lawyer rested without calling a single expert witness to challenge the prosecution’s case — even though he and his family believed part of the money they’d paid the lawyer was for that purpose.
After a three-week trial, Remy was found guilty.
Other 'Dateline' cases
The plea offered to Remy last year came amid mounting challenges for the prosecution. Cobb, the sheriff’s detective who investigated Jen’s killing, had died, as had a key witness who examined Remy’s work computer, according to Ben Bergman, the special prosecutor appointed to handle the case for Chenango County.
Another witness who testified in the first trial — the last person to talk to Jen before she disappeared — was no longer cooperative, Bergman told “Dateline.”
As the trial approached, Bergman said he met with Jen’s parents and talked through the upsides and downsides of a potential plea. They agreed to go ahead with an agreement, Bergman said, because what they really wanted was something more than a lengthy prison sentence.
“They wanted him to go into that courtroom and say that he was guilty,” Bergman said.
To Remy’s new defense lawyers, the weaknesses in Bergman’s case combined with a stronger defense that could potentially include new evidence, like DNA discovered under Jen’s fingernails that wasn’t Remy’s, meant the prosecution wouldn’t be a “slam dunk,” Hammond said. And Bergman’s offer of 22 years and a reduced charge of manslaughter meant that Remy could avoid the uncertainty of a trial and walk out of prison around 2031, his lawyer said.
Remy said he initially pushed back, but later realized he didn’t want to be like some inmates he said he’d come to know in prison — a person who claims innocence but remains stuck behind bars for decades.
May 11, 2016 · Eileen Mohan, whose son Christopher was one of the six men murdered, has filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court for damages, naming as defendants the strata corporation, the property manager, the...
May 11, 2012 · Stephanie Lazarus, 52, was found guilty in March of killing Sherri Rasmussen, who was bludgeoned and shot to death in the condo she shared with her husband of three months, John Ruetten.
Dec 23, 2021 · Paige Eileen Burkinshaw of Grande Prairie is due back in court January 17. She is facing charges of manslaughter, robbery, and accessory to murder. Two other people had previously pleaded guilty to accessory charges and were handed short jail sentences.
