A woman who watched her former boyfriend murder six members of his extended family at their Gage Park home and then helped him steal their property was sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday.
Jafeth Ramos, 25, at one point faced nearly 500 criminal counts ranging from first-degree murder to burglary in connection with the slayings, but in the end she pleaded guilty to only one — armed robbery.
Ramos’ sentence and guilty plea were part of a deal with Cook County prosecutors in which she agreed to testify against her former boyfriend, Diego Uribe, who was sentenced to life in prison last month for the murders.
At Uribe’s trial, Ramos told jurors that she accepted the deal in the hope that she would one day be able to again be with her son, who was barely a toddler when the couple were arrested in May 2016.
Ramos testified that in February 2016 she accompanied Uribe to the family’s home in the 5700 block of South California Avenue where he demanded money from his aunt, Maria Martinez, 32, before shooting her multiple times. Uribe then beat her brother, Noe Martinez Jr., 38, to death and pushed the siblings’ 58-year-old mother, Rosaura Martinez, down a flight of stairs before stabbing her.
Later, Uribe had Ramos and his aunt’s two children, 10-year-old Alexis Cruz and 13-year-old Leonardo Cruz, help him collect property from the home before he stabbed both boys to death. Before leaving, the couple waited for Noe Martinez Sr., 62, to return home with food for his family and Uribe killed him as well.
At Uribe’s trial, Ramos admitted she didn’t try to leave or call for help.
Ramos declined to give a statement at her sentencing hearing Tuesday in Judge Carol Howard’s courtroom.
As she was lead out of the room, Ramos waved to family members in the gallery and made a heart shape with her hands. The family declined to comment afterwards.
Ramos was given credit for 2,394 days she already spent in custody and will have to complete 85% of her sentence before she is eligible for supervised release.
