Tracy woman's death 'overkill'

By Scott Smith
McClatchy Newspapers

Posted: 11/20/2009 11:45:44 AM PST
Updated: 11/20/2009 07:02:40 PM PST

STOCKTON — Two men must stand trial for what prosecutors say was the grisly "overkill" stabbing death of a 58-year-old Tracy woman found dead in her mobile home earlier this year.

Superior Court Judge Bernard Garber ruled Friday that Robert and Jorge Morgan, a married couple who met in prison, should be tried in connection with the Aug. 6 death of Cynthia Ramos in her trailer at Green Oaks Mobile Home Park.

The pair are charged with murder and the special circumstances of lying in wait, burglary and robbery, which make them eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole.

During the preliminary hearing this week, the San Joaquin County's medical examiner gave shocking testimony in court of Ramos' violent death.

"She was killed over and over and over," Bennett Omalu said, explaining that Ramos appeared to have fought back as she was stabbed 55 times, struck 13 times with something hard and strangled with twine or a small rope.

Omalu visited the crime scene after the body was discovered and later performed Ramos' autopsy. San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Valli Israels asked Omalu on the witness stand if there is a name for this type of death.

"We refer to it as an overkill," he said. "It is forensically excessive."

Since their arrests, Robert Morgan, 39, has waged a losing battle for time at the jail to plan a defense strategy with his 24-year-old husband. The two are kept separated.

The Morgans first met in a cell at Mule Creek State Prison. They became legal domestic partners one year ago, Robert Morgan said in a letter.

Their partnership wasn't discussed directly in Thursday's testimony, which began with Ramos' roommate describing how she found the bloody scene.

Mary Arafiles said she rented a room from Ramos. Arafiles left that morning while Ramos was on the phone.

She returned that afternoon to see two men — whom she identified in court as the Morgans — walking away from the mobile home. Robert Morgan carried Ramos' locking suitcase, she said.

Ramos kept her valuables in the suitcase, which she referred to as a safe. Arafiles reluctantly testified that Ramos used methamphetamine. Ramos had told her that Robert Morgan stole $700 worth of drugs one month earlier.

The investigation took Tracy police a short distance across the mobile home park, where the Morgans lived with Robert Morgan's mother.

Tracy police Detective Mark Bergman said he found a bloody knife in plumbing for a makeshift toilet in the Morgans' mobile home. He also said he found women's jewelry apparently dropped through a hole in the floor of the Morgans' mobile home.

Thursday's graphic testimony left Ramos' relatives with blanched faces. Before disturbing details were discussed, the prosecutor warned them, saying it might be a good time to leave. None of them moved.

About a dozen of them absorbed the pathologist's shocking revelations about the crime. Some wiped tears as he described how the knife had severed Ramos' collarbone and how she drowned in her blood.

During the afternoon court recess, Ramos' family and friends held one another in the hallway. Some openly cried.