Guardian Pistol Whipped, Starved Kids in His Care, DA

Prosecutors said Michael Ramos beat the children in his care with his handgun and put the gun to their heads. -Photo by NYPD

Bronx Voice 

December 12, 2024

Follow @Bronxvoice1

BRONX - A guardian has pled guilty to beating, starving and putting a gun to the heads of the children in his care, prosectors said.

 

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced that a Bronx man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree Assault in the beating and starving of a teenage brother and sister for weeks.

The defendant, Michael Ramos, 35, formerly of Burke Avenue, was sentenced to six years in prison and three years post-release supervision on each of two counts of second-degree Assault, to run consecutively, by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Audrey Stone. He pleaded guilty to those charges on November 1, 2024. 

According to the investigation, between January 1, 2023, and April 17, 2023, the victims, a 14- year-old girl and her 13-year-old brother, were living with Ramos in his apartment in the NYCHA Eastchester Gardens Housing Complex. The apartment initially belonged to the defendant’s mother, who had legally adopted the victims when they were infants. 

Ramos became guardian after his mother died in 2019. 

The defendant on multiple occasions held a loaded pistol to the victims’ heads and threatened to kill them. He pistol-whipped them and beat them with other objects. Ramos starved the victims and kept them from attending school.

District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant was the guardian of these siblings, and he viciously beat them and deprived them of food. He has now been held accountable for his horrific treatment of these children, who are still dealing with the trauma and physical effects of their brutal captivity.”