After 3 Trials, Woman Convicted of Helping Lover Kill Husband

A 31-year-old Huntington Beach woman was convicted Monday of helping her lover arrange her husband’s slaying for his insurance.

Jurors were never aware of the most damning evidence against Jeanette Hughes: her confession to police. Three judges had ruled that police took her statement without properly advising her of her rights.

Monday’s verdict came at Hughes’ third trial on charges of conspiracy and murder in the death of James Hughes, 37, who was killed while he slept at the couple’s home on Jan. 12, 1984.

Hughes’ lover at the time, Adam Salas Ramirez, 44, of Stanton has been convicted of first-degree murder for shooting her husband. His son, Adam Edward Ramirez, 23, of Westminster, who drove his father to the Hughes house that night, was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter after he agreed to testify against Hughes and his father.

The senior Ramirez was arrested in the Hughes car shortly after the killing. Later, it was revealed that Ramirez had planned to abandon the Hughes car for his own, but he had left his own car keys with his son.

Jeanette Hughes called police after the shooting, and in a tape-recorded conversation played in court, she frantically described how a masked gunman broke into their home. She claimed she had heard gunshots while lying next to her husband and that the gunman had struck her.

At first, she denied that she knew Ramirez, but after several hours of interrogation, she described in detail how the two of them had planned the killing to get her husband’s life insurance, about $500,000.

Her first trial, which included the senior Ramirez as a defendant, ended when Superior Court Judge Leonard H. McBride ruled that they should be tried separately.

At her second trial in June, a mistrial was declared after a holdout juror, an elderly man, refused to vote for conviction.

During the third trial, Hughes testified on her own behalf. She admitted that she had conspired to kill her husband but claimed she had subsequently bowed out and had tried to stop Ramirez.

Hughes was convicted of both conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder and faces a sentence of 26 years to life. Superior Court Judge Jean Rheinheimer set Feb. 28 for sentencing.

Hughes at first was calm after Monday’s verdict was read, but then began to weep. Her mother, who had attended all of Hughes’ trials, also cried.

“I don’t think her mother ever really faced up to the sordid side of this whole thing,” said Hughes’ attorney, Donald Rubright.

Hughes began dating Ramirez in 1983, and was separated from her husband during part of that year. But the Hugheses were living together when he was killed.

The only victory for the defense came earlier this year when the court threw out the special circumstances of murder for financial gain, which would have permitted the district attorney’s office to seek the death penalty.

The key evidence about the insurance money was Jeanette Hughes’ statement, which had been ruled inadmissible.

Rubright speculated that Hughes was convicted not because of events leading up to her husband’s slaying, but what she did afterwards.

“If she had come clean to police in the beginning, told them that she and Ramirez had planned this but that he had gone ahead and carried it out without her approval, I think she would have walked out of that courtroom free,” Rubright said. “But her actions made it clear she was still involved in the conspiracy.”

Attorneys on both sides said they knew the trial would have ended much sooner if her confession had been admitted. But Rubright said the judges were right, adding that police must recognize constitutional rights.