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Silent Suspect Wins Delay in Murder Case

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Times Staff Writer

Saying his client has refused to utter a word, the lawyer for triple-homicide suspect Jose Manuel Ramirez won a second delay in the Oxnard man’s arraignment hearing to explore the problem.

Defense attorney Louis “Chuck” Samonsky said his client had remained mute during a jailhouse visit Wednesday, the lawyer’s first encounter with Ramirez, 21, since he was hired by Ramirez’s family.

Samonsky asked Superior Court Judge Roland Purnell for time to look over Ramirez’s health and disciplinary records while in jail to explore his apparent inability to communicate.

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“My client is apparently unable to talk to me, not even one word,” Samonsky told Purnell.

Purnell agreed to delay the hearing until Tuesday, when Ramirez is expected to respond to charges that could bring the death penalty.

Ramirez faces three murder counts in connection with an April killing spree that took the lives of 21-year-old Daniel Campos of Oxnard and a Kern County couple who were vacationing near the beach.

Alexander Jordan, 24, and his wife, Cindy Jordan, 22, both of Taft, were also robbed, a circumstance that could draw the death penalty, prosecutors have said.

Investigators believe Ramirez aided another man, Rudolfo Negrete, in carrying out the slayings that occurred April 16 and 17. Negrete remains at large, and there is a $10,000 reward for information leading to his capture.

Authorities arrested Ramirez on a probation violation Nov. 9 at a Ventura County mental health facility, where he apparently had sought treatment. He was rearrested on murder charges the next day, officials said.

Detectives believe that Campos was shot first and his body dumped alongside a farm road in the Oxnard area.

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The Jordans’ bodies were found the next day off Potrero Road, near the Cal State Channel Islands campus. Cindy Jordan was in the early stages of pregnancy, officials said.

All three victims had been shot in the head.

Several relatives of the victims and the defendant attended Thursday’s hearing.

Outside the courtroom, Cindy Jordan’s parents expressed frustration that the arraignment had again been delayed. They accused Ramirez of pretending to be ill in an attempt to avoid prosecution.

Under California law, if a defendant is found mentally ill, he could be sent to an institution until he is competent to stand trial.

“He’s faking,” said Cindy Jordan’s father, John Schulz, 50, a disabled oil field worker. “He’s hoping this will get him out of a trial.”

Cindy Jordan’s mother, Cynthia Schulz, 45, was also skeptical. “I think he’s a coward and he needs to fess up to what he’s done,” she said.

Julia Campos, mother of Daniel Campos, said she had been told that Ramirez and Negrete had robbed the Jordans of money and their car.

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“If Ramirez was able to take money from the Jordans, he was certainly sane then.”

Taft is a close-knit community and the killings have shaken the whole town, said Erica Cary, 23, Cindy Jordan’s best friend.

The hardest thing is realizing that Cindy was finally pregnant after four years of trying to conceive, Cary said.

“A baby was the thing she wanted most in the world,” she said.

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