Life in Prison Without Parole for 2020 Murder of Toddler
Today in Department 6 of the Tulare County Superior Court, the court sentenced Ezequiel Carlos Ramirez, age 28, to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 35 years after pleading guilty to the torture and murder of his 23-month-old son, Joziah, and other crimes.
“There is no closure in a case like this only resolution, closure indicates a neat ending, a finished chapter where pain is packed away. Resolution acknowledges that grief remains, but it changes shape, it becomes something you learn to carry, integrate, and live around rather than something you move past,” Joziah’s family told prosecutors.
Ramirez impregnated Joziah’s mother when she was aged 15. At the time of the murder, Ramirez was on parole for robbery and statutory rape and was in contact with Joziah and the child’s mother despite a parole term prohibiting him from contacting them. Furthermore, Ramirez was engaged in pimping out Joziah’s mother, who had since turned 18, and at least one other woman in Tulare and Fresno counties.
Joziah was almost potty trained and was described as smart and active.
The abuse that culminated in Joziah’s death had been ongoing. Joziah’s mother described maltreatment by Ramirez that ranged from verbal abuse to lifting the child up off the ground by his hair.
On June 5, 2020, the family had relocated from a hotel in Fresno to a motel in Visalia to continue Ramirez’ pimping and pandering criminal enterprise. While Joziah’s mother was away from the motel room, Ramirez severely abused Joziah. Ramirez did not attempt to aid his son and merely messaged Joziah’s mother to come back. When she returned to the motel, she found Joziah unresponsive and breathing irregularly. There was blood on the bedding and elsewhere in the room. Ramirez told her he had only kicked Joziah in the stomach and forbade her from calling an ambulance. Instead, he called a family friend and told her Joziah fell down some stairs. After deleting data from the phone belonging to Joziah’s mother, Ramirez was recorded on motel surveillance fleeing on foot. Later that night he sent messages to the child’s mother, including “I’m gone,” “I’ll never see u again,” and “I’m so sorry.”
Emergency services and law enforcement were contacted shortly before 11 pm and arrived minutes after Ramirez fled from the motel. Joziah was rushed to Kaweah Health Medical Center and later airlifted to Valley Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced braindead. He passed away on June 9. The number and nature of Joziah’s injuries proved they were the result of inflicted, non-accidental trauma. He had fractures to both sides of his skull, brain swelling and bleeding, fractures to both sides of his ribcage, and bruises, burns, and abrasions to his extremities, limbs, torso, and genitals. The injuries, both internal and external, were consistent with being struck, shaken, thrown, kicked, and burned. An autopsy showed the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head.
In the early morning hours after the incident, Ramirez called a friend in Fresno to pick him up, claiming he had been in a car accident and needed a ride. On the way back to Fresno, Ramirez was emotional and repeated “I didn’t have to do it” several times. He stayed the night with the friend but departed the next morning leaving behind a duffel bag of clothing spotted with blood.
Ramirez avoided capture for approximately four days. During this time, he continued trying to recruit women for his prostitution operation. Visalia Police Department officers located Ramirez in Fresno with the help of a state fugitive apprehension team and took him into custody on June 9. During a suspect interview, Ramirez initially claimed he had no knowledge of what occurred and denied even being around his child. Confronted with evidence and witness accounts, Ramirez then admitted to being present, but insisted he did not hurt his son “that bad” and “didn’t cause that much damage.”
On day three of jury selection for his March 2026 trial, Ramirez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with the special circumstance of torture, and seven felony counts of pimping, pandering, and soliciting for prostitution.
“The brutality and callousness of the defendant stand in stark contrast to the innocence and vulnerability of this toddler whose body was bloodied, burned, bruised, and broken by the very person who should have been his protector and caregiver,” said Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward. “This office is grateful to all those who worked tirelessly for little Joziah. This case has made a profound impact not only on the entire prosecution team but also left a lasting impression on each of those who tended to Joziah in his final hours.”
Joziah’s mother was charged as a codefendant for failing to protect her son from Ramirez. In 2021, she pleaded to felony child endangerment and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17, 2026, where she faces a maximum sentence of 6 years.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Sean Sangree and was investigated by the Visalia Police Department.
Media inquiries can be directed to the Office of the District Attorney, County of Tulare Assistant District Attorney Sean Sangree (559) 636-5494