Man guilty of 1-year-old’s murder may get life in prison without parole
ANDERSON, Ind. (WISH) — A 30-year-old Chesterfield man was found guilty Tuesday of the August 2018 murder of a 1-year-old girl.
A jury on Wednesday will begin to decide if Ryan Ramirez will get life in prison without a chance of parole for his crimes.
Ramirez was found guilty of the neglect and murder of Paisley Hudson.
Authorities said Kayla Hudson, Ramirez’s girlfriend, brought Paisley to St. Vincent Anderson Hospital on July 28, 2018. The girl died at the hospital that morning. An autopsy found Paisley died from multiple blunt force injuries, including two deep cuts to the liver that led to blood in her abdomen wall.
Hudson pleaded guilty to neglect and was sentenced in April to 40 years in prison.
According to court documents, Anderson Police Department officer went to St. Vincent to investigate the child’s death. Kayla Hudson told them she had left her children in the care of Ramirez, her boyfriend of six months, while she went to work on Friday night. Ramirez dropped Kayla off at work at 5 p.m. July 27 and when he picked her up around 11 p.m., Paisley was asleep in her car seat.
Ramirez carried Paisley back up to the room they stayed in at a Red Roof Inn and put her to bed in a Pack ’n Play where she normally slept, while Kayla put her son to bed, the court documents say. Kayla Hudson told police she then went to Walmart to buy cream and tea bags, which she returned and applied to the boy’s body, to treat bruises and swelling. She then left again to get food and cigarettes.
When Kayla Hudson came back the second time, court documents say, she asked Ramirez if he had checked on Paisley, and he said he’d changed her diaper. She told police she and Ramirez were awake all night, talking and watching TV, when around 6:15 a.m. Saturday, she became worried that Paisley hadn’t woken up or moved. When she tried to wake Paisley, the girl was unresponsive, not breathing and cold to the touch, she told police.
Kayla undressed the girl and put her in a warm bath, then attempted to perform CPR and redressed her but did not call 911, according to court documents. Kayla told police that Ramirez said, “You’re going to get CPS (Child Protective Services) called on you. You’ve already lost one kid, you don’t want to lose [redacted name] too. We’ve got to come up with something.”
She told police that she refused to come up with alibis and left her other child in the care of Ramirez while she took Paisley to St. Vincent Anderson.
Ramirez’s two sons were interviewed by police; one of them said Ramirez hit Paisley “for no reason, he hits her a lot.”
Hudson’s other child was examined and found to be “covered” with bruises and other signs of physical trauma.
