A WA judge has told a private school-educated man, whose protracted crime spree culminated in the brutal bashing of a 65-year-old good Samaritan, he "wasted" opportunities to get his life back on track.
Jacob Ramos, 20, was sentenced to seven years and 11 months jail on Tuesday after pleading guilty in August to the bashing of a retiree, and his role in a ram raid on a luxury Perth fashion store.
In August last year, Ramos committed an aggravated armed robbery of a vape store in Hamilton Hill, where he threatened the female cashier with a 20cm knife, making off with cash and vaping implements, which he stashed down his pants.
On May 6 this year, Perth District Court Judge Carmel Barbagallo granted Ramos a two-year supervisory sentence for that crime and released him into the community.
Just over two weeks later, on May 23, he carried out a ram raid on a high end luxury goods store in Perth with alleged accomplices, stealing goods valued at $70,000.
He then used a stolen vehicle to smash through the window of a fast food restaurant in Applecross, causing an estimated $200,000 in damage and lost business.
On June 5, he and a co-accused approached a man in East Fremantle asking for a bandaid, before stealing the man's truck and a mobile phone.
Retiree was trying to help neighbours
The court heard Ramos did not know why they stopped outside the Jindalee Retirement Village on Erpingham Road in Hamilton Hill later that day.
They went inside and kicked in the window of semi-retiree Christopher Hands, before breaking the windows of two other units in the complex where a 69-year-old man and 67-year-old woman lived alone.
Mr Hands came outside and tried to calm the men and distract them from continuing their assault on his elderly neighbours' homes.
Ramos then punched Mr Hands in the head.
The court heard that despite his alleged accomplice telling Ramos "that's enough", he chased Mr Hands and pushed him to the ground and kicked him repeatedly in the head.
Victim forced to give up volunteer work after attack
Police arrived and arrested Ramos in the stolen vehicle covered in blood and in possession of Mr Hands's wallet.
Mr Hands needed 27 stitches in his face and ear, and the court heard he suffered ongoing pain when he opened his jaw.
He had been a volunteer with the Good Samaritans but was forced to stop this work due to the severity of his injuries.
The court heard Ramos had been using cannabis and alcohol since he was 14 and then took up methamphetamine in year 11.
He left his private school in year 10 for a public school, and had played basketball at a high level.
In sentencing, Judge Barbagallo said he had the love of his parents and a stable living situation, but these "protective factors" had failed to stop his offending.
"Everyone is bending over backwards to help you, (but) where are you Mr Ramos?" he said.
"Where is your motivation to change?"
Ramos claimed he had little memory of his offending as he was on drugs at the time, but in relation to his assault, he said he thought Mr Hands had stolen his friend's wallet.
Judge Barbagallo said his drug use was either an excuse or something that made him all the more dangerous to the community.
"He has voluntarily ingested it … there is no mitigation in getting high, frying your brain on drugs, it just makes you more dangerous," she said.
Ramos's lawyer, David Bodeker, argued his client was genuinely remorseful but Judge Barbagallo said his offences just weeks after his supervisory sentence was granted belied that.
"Having been given the chance to turn your life around, why would you do that?" she asked him.
"It's difficult to fathom the enormity of the path of destruction you have left in your wake."
Attack on the 'most vulnerable in our community'
Judge Barbagallo weighed the impact on his particularly vulnerable victims in sentencing.
"How awful it must have been for them," she said.
"How awful for you to do that to the most vulnerable in our community.
"What is going to happen to them if you got into their home?
"These are people who would not have had any chance of defending themselves."
Judge Barbagallo also dismissed suggestions Ramos may have an intellectual or cognitive deficit that contributed to him being led into crime by others.
But she considered his relative youth and his volunteering of information in a police interview about his earlier ram raid crimes.
With time served, he will be eligible for parole in just under six years.
