Almost 13 years to the date after Hector Ramirez killed his wife in front of their then-9-year-old son in Kingsbridge Heights, he was sentenced for her murder.
According to an announcement by the Bronx District Attorney’s office, Ramirez, 42, was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter last month and sentenced to 18 years in prison on Monday.
The investigation states that on Aug. 29, 2010, Ramirez stabbed his wife Ella Zamora, 28, in the chest inside their Kingsbridge Heights apartment after she tried to kick him out following an argument. She died later at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and her son — who witnessed the altercation between his parents — was taken into care by Zamora’s sister.
According to the television show America’s Most Wanted, Ramirez had accused Zamora of infidelity.
The case went cold as Ramirez fled the state and had been on the run for more than a decade, until he was finally apprehended in Las Vegas in February 2022 and extradited to the Bronx, according to the district attorney’s office.
Man accused of stabbing girlfriend to death in Kingsbridge Heights in 2010 found in Vegas
According to an archived 2010 web page on America’s Most Wanted website, police were searching for Ramirez with possible locations in Mexico, where he is from, New York, where he moved to, and Salem, Oregon, where his sister lived at the time.
Ramirez was first indicted by a grand jury in September 2017 and charged with murder in the second degree, manslaughter in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.
He was convicted of Zamora’s murder by a jury trial in Bronx Supreme Court on June 5.
Bronx DA Darcel Clark said that Zamora’s son, Jesus Orlando, now 22 years old “bravely” testified against his biological father.
“The defendant killed his wife in front of their son and thought he could get away with it. He was tracked down, indicted, and found guilty by a Bronx jury,” Clark said. “Now, the defendant will go to prison to pay for his heinous act.”
Femicide — the killing of women and girls by their (generally male) intimate partners or other family members — has been classified by many as an epidemic.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2020 global estimates indicate that, on average, one woman or girl is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes. The data also shows that while both women and men are affected by homicides, “women and girls bear the largest burden of lethal violence perpetrated within the home, accounting for approximately six out of every 10 homicide victims killed by intimate partners or other family members.”
And in New York City, Bronxites suffer from the highest rates of reported domestic violence cases and deaths.
Information from the Bronx DA’s office shows that more than 9,500 domestic violence incidents were reported in the Bronx in 2021. Additionally, NYPD statistics indicate that from 2015 to 2020, eight out of the top 15 community districts in New York City with the highest rates of intimate partner homicides were from the Bronx — in neighborhoods that include Claremont, Crotona Park, Melrose, Morrisania, Bathgate and Belmont.
There has been one reported femicide in the Bronx so far this year. Jeremy Cortorreal, 33, was charged with murder, manslaughter and assault for allegedly strangling his 38-year-old girlfriend to death on March 21.
But intimate partner violence and femicide statistics only account for the number of times people have come forward — the belief is that the number of people experiencing domestic violence or intimate partner harm is higher due to underreporting. Experts estimate that less than half of crime victims — around 41% — end up reporting to the police.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
