Taco Bell Murderer Wanted to Horrify Victims First--D.A.

The prosecutor in the 1979 Santa Ana Taco Bell murder case Thursday accused convicted killer Marcelino Ramos of trying to make the deaths of his victims “as horrifying and unpleasant for them” as he possibly could.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrick S. Geary put the accusation in the form of a question, asking Ramos if he told the victims to “say your prayers” as a way of horrifying them. Ramos denied that was why he said it. But he could not explain what it meant.

Death Sentence Reversed

Ramos, now 30, was convicted and sentenced to die in the gas chamber in 1980 for the murder of Katherine Parrott, the Taco Bell night manager, in the June 3, 1979, robbery. A second employee, Kevin Pickrell, survived a gunshot wound to his head and testified against Ramos.

Because the state Supreme Court reversed Ramos’ death sentence, he is in a new penalty trial. Jurors must decide only whether to return a death verdict, or life in prison without parole.

Ramos told the jury that he had lied at his first trial in 1980 when he said that the robbery plan worked out with a partner, Ruben Gaitan, included only grazing the victims so the robbers could escape. That was supposed to be Gaitan’s idea.

Ramos said this time he was going to tell the truth--that he was solely responsible for the young woman’s murder. Testimony at his first trial, he said, was to protect Gaitan, who later was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder.

But after three days of testimony this week, Ramos’ story was essentially the same as at the first trial--that he did not intend for his victims to die when he shot them.

Prosecutor Geary pressed Ramos hard on that issue.

“You shot both of them in the back of the head, didn’t you? You didn’t shoot them in the arm or the leg?” Geary asked. Right, Ramos replied.

“Was it your intention that Katherine Parrott should die when you shot her?” Geary asked.

“No sir,” Ramos said.

“Was it your intention she should live after you shot her?” Geary asked.

“Sir, all I can remember is I shot someone,” Ramos answered at one point.

Pickrell testified that Ramos forced him and Parrott into a walk-in refrigerator, told them to take off their Taco Bell hats, kneel on the floor next to the back wall, and lower their heads. He told them to say their prayers, and laughed when they begged him not to shoot them. Then he told Parrott to put a rag in her mouth.

Medical testimony shows that Ramos then struck Parrott twice, hard enough to split her skull, before shooting her.

It was Ramos’ actions leading up to the shooting that prosecutors in 1979 deemed cruel enough to seek a death verdict against Ramos.

Before Ramos’ new trial, defense attorneys said Ramos would explain what he meant by “say your prayers” and some of his other actions.

But on direct questioning by defense attorney Joel W. Baruch, those matters were not even put to Ramos. And on cross-examination, Ramos said he could not remember anything except that he was angry because Pickrell at first did not take him seriously about the robbery. Ramos said he did not know why he had them kneel at the back of the refrigerator, or why he had Parrott put the rag in her mouth.

Prosecutor Geary suggested, through his questions, that Ramos intended to kill the victims all along, because he wanted to eliminate witnesses. Ramos denied that that was a consideration.

“I never stopped to see if they were dead after I shot them,” Ramos testified.

“That was a mistake, wasn’t it?” Geary said.

Most of Ramos’ answers about the shootings themselves were either “I don’t know” or “sir, the plan was only to rob.” Ramos’ answers were mostly mumbles at first. He complained that he was intimidated by a television news camera in the courtroom. Eventually, Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno ordered the camera removed.

Ramos’ penalty trial is scheduled to reach the jury for deliberations next Thursday.