A federal jury has convicted a man who evaded capture for seven years after kidnapping and carjacking his former employer in a violent 2018 attack in Placitas.
Jose Ramirez, 37, was found guilty this week of conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping, conspiracy to carjack, carjacking, using a firearm during a crime of violence and extortion, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico. The verdict came after a five-day trial and approximately three hours of jury deliberation.
Court documents show Ramirez orchestrated the attack on July 26, 2018, after meeting with co-defendants the previous day in Albuquerque. He told them he wanted to “get back at his boss for firing him” and “take his boss for all he had,” according to evidence presented at trial.
Hours before the kidnapping, Ramirez cut off a GPS ankle monitoring bracelet he was wearing as part of court supervision, prosecutors said.
Ramirez and a co-defendant ambushed the victim in the early morning hours as he left his Placitas residence. Ramirez held the victim in a headlock with a knife to his throat while his accomplice pistol-whipped him multiple times in the face, according to court evidence.
The victim was bound and placed in the bed of his own Ford Ranger truck before being driven to a remote compound on Pajarito Mesa. Ramirez held him captive in a shed for approximately 15 hours while attempting to extort ransom money from the victim’s family and force wire transfers to Mexico.
The victim was later dropped off in southwest Albuquerque that evening. He walked to a nearby gas station and asked a clerk to call 911.
Ramirez fled and remained a fugitive until law enforcement arrested him in California for drug possession seven years later.
The judge ordered Ramirez to remain in custody pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled. He faces a minimum of five years and up to life in prison.
The FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office investigated the case with assistance from the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office, Albuquerque Police Department and New Mexico Corrections Department Probation and Parole.