Simi Man Gets 19 Years to Life in Slaying : Crime: Sentencing comes after tearful statements in court from the mothers of the defendant and the shooting victim.

A Simi Valley man who killed a rival gang member in an act his own mother described as senseless was sentenced Friday to 19 years to life in prison.

Victor Ramirez, who reportedly was suicidal in the weeks after his arrest, looked down throughout his sentencing hearing, including during tearful statements in Superior Court by both his mother and the victim’s mother.

On the way out of the courtroom, however, the 19-year-old smiled at a friend in the courtroom and gave a thumbs-up sign.

Ramirez was riding his 10-speed bike April 1 when he encountered Armando Rodriguez with two friends on a bridge that spans the Arroyo Simi. Without warning, Ramirez fired a single shot at the group, hitting Rodriguez in the chest.

The shooting, Simi Valley’s first homicide of the year, touched off several other violent gang confrontations in the city.

Ramirez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

In a probation report prepared for the hearing, Ramirez said he did not plan to kill the 19-year-old Rodriguez.

“I was paranoid and thought the whole world knew I was on drugs,” Ramirez said. “I pointed the gun to keep them at a distance. I guess I was nervous and pulled the trigger.”

Ramirez told probation officials he used alcohol and drugs daily since he was 15 years old. He had methamphetamines in his system the day of the slaying, Deputy Dist. Atty. Roger A. Inman said.

“What you’re looking at is the typical dangerous combination--guns and drugs,” Inman said. “This kind of thing is almost worse than a situation where you have a motive, because you can’t control it.”

The prosecutor said he believes Ramirez had no reason to target Rodriguez, and he said reports that the two teen-agers had a fistfight two weeks before the killing could not be confirmed.

“I’m pretty much convinced that there really was no issue between those two,” Inman said.

Before the sentencing, Alicia Rodriguez told the court how the loss of her eldest son has devastated her family.

“It’s not fair because of the stupid action that I should have lost something that I was very proud of,” Alicia Rodriguez, speaking through a Spanish interpreter, told Acting Superior Court Judge Steven Hintz.

Rodriguez described being told at work that her son had been shot and how she chased the ambulance in another car before officials informed her he was dead.

After requesting “justice done for my son,” Rodriguez buried her face in a tissue, her body racked with silent sobs as tears poured over her hands.

After several moments, Hintz asked the woman if she had any more to say, and she shook her head no and returned to her seat.

Later, Ramirez’s mother, Margaret, addressed the court and expressed sympathy for the Rodriguez family.

“I’m not insensitive to the pain of this lady,” she said, pointing to the victim’s mother. “We pray continually that they can get some comfort.”

Then, describing her own son, Margaret Ramirez spoke of her pain over the killing and its aftermath.

“It was not in his character,” she said. “It’s senseless. I don’t think he could even make sense of it.”

Jail officials placed Ramirez on a suicide watch for several weeks after his arrest. Deputy Public Defender Gary Windom said the teen-ager refused to talk to him for a month, choosing instead to sit silently in a room for lengthy periods with Windom and his investigator.

When he finally spoke, Windom said, Ramirez’s first words were, “I want to die.”

Hintz sentenced Ramirez to the mandatory 15 years to life for the slaying, then added four years because a gun was used to commit the crime.

Ramirez will be housed in the California Youth Authority until he is 25, when he will be transferred to a state prison.