Victim in long delayed deadly conduct trial awaits justice

After both sides rested their case, Judge Rodriquez stood up, announced that she would announce her verdict within the week and then retired to chambers. A ruling hasn’t been issued and her office reported that she left Friday for continuing education

Note: There's a long back story to Mr. Ramus, a one-time Republican county commissioner candidate, and the events that led up to this trial. We all know that most everything that is hidden, buried or thrown into deep waters will eventually surface. We're sure more will be surfacing in this sordid story.

Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Mr. O'Dell at codell@austin.rr.com, or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story


“Justice Delayed is Justice Denied”
~William Gladstone

By Charles O'Dell, Ph.D.
Contributing Editor

After nearly two years of living in fear for her life while criminal defense attorney Kelly Higgins used delaying tactics, the trial of Nick Ramus on a charge of deadly conduct was finally held this past Tuesday in Hays County Court of Law before Judge Linda Rodriquez.

Taken into custody by Hays County deputies Manny Mendoza and Danny Lombardo and charged with deadly conduct for pointing a loaded 12 gauge shotgun at Carolyn Logan on the morning of September 5, 2008, the case was first set for trial October 5, 2009, then January 25, 2010, March 26, 2010, and finally held on the afternoon of April 27, 2010.

“When Nick Ramus raised that gun and pointed it at me I knew he was going to shoot me,” said Logan as she sat on the witness stand.

Asked by Hays County Assistant District Attorney Eddie Balderas what happened that day, Logan, in a soft but steady voice recounted how she was mowing a portion of her pasture while a backhoe operator was leveling dirt that she had allowed a contractor to temporarily store on her property after a sudden rain storm. She observed Ramus carrying a gun as he walked directly to the backhoe and had words with the operator.

Suddenly, the backhoe accelerated toward the gate to leave Logan’s property, nearly tipping the backhoe over. Ramus, leaning over her fence, waved his arm and hand over his head signaled to Logan as if to say, “You get over here!” Balderas had Logan mark two photos to show the area where she was on her mower and where Ramus was standing with the loaded shotgun.

When Balderas asked if Ramus had pointed the gun at her, Logan became tense as she recounted how Ramus had raised the gun to his shoulder and aimed it at her. Logan described how she leaped from the running mower and ran for her life crouched over until she got into her house where she called the Sheriff Department.

Another witness, 82-year-old Reed Carr, who lives across the road from Ramus, testified that he was working in front of his house when he heard a diesel engine rev up and looked up to see a backhoe nearly tip over as it left the Logan property. Carr testified that he immediately went inside and called Logan to ask what was going on. Carr described how Logan sounded “excited” and, that he had seen Ramus with something in his hand. Carr said he didn’t want to become involved with Ramus and when asked by the prosecutor if he was scared, Carr responded, “Yes.”

Both sheriff deputies testified separately that they had arrived on the scene in about ten minutes of the dispatcher call and Deputy Mendoza said that Logan was, “upset, excited, talking fast and pointing towards the Ramus property as she described what had just happened to her.” When asked about the type of call received, Deputy Lombardo said it was a “terrorist report.”

Deputy Lombardo, a 9 ½ year veteran on the force, was asked by prosecutor Balderas if he was concerned for his safety as he approached Ramus, and officer Lombardo responded, “Yes.” Deputy Mendoza described Ramus as, “standoffish” and, “defiant in a passive manner.” “He was slow in answering questions,” and, “did not directly answer questions,” said Mendoza.

Ramus took the witness stand at 4pm. It began with Ramus using a cane and limping slowly to the witness stand. He seated himself with feigned great difficulty. What followed was an hour of outrageous claims about his background, testimony that conflicted with the other four witnesses, and contradictory testimony as Ramus kept changing his answers. Ramus was first questioned by his criminal defense attorney Kelly Higgins.

Those who regularly see Nick Ramus are aware that he only uses a cane in court and on trips to the local Texas Work Force office. The day before his trial, Ramus was seen moving his mail box stand made of rock and concrete constructed by Ramus. His mail box had been earlier run into by a car. Numerous photographs exist showing Ramus laying septic pipe, constructing and repairing his roof, unloading equipment, materials and boxes from a truck – all without a cane in sight.

Ramus gave conflicting testimony in this trial and conflicting with sworn statements in previous legal suits Ramus brought against Chartwell’s, Inc. and Hays County.

Ramus repeated his long discredited claim of being brought to Texas by renowned chef Jean LaFont, and of studying at some of the world’s renowned culinary schools. As if to further mock the court, Ramus issued a new claim of having had an FBI top secret security clearance at the age of nineteen as part of his nuclear work in the Navy. He went on to embellish old discredited claims of serving as a machinist mate on a nuclear vessel in the U.S. Navy.

Ramus claims on his web site http://www.stophayspowergrab.org/gpage8.html to have, “…served temporary duty aboard the USS Tripoli, a helicopter assault ship off the coast of Vietnam, before being transferred into the Navy’s nuclear program. He was honorably discharged from the Navy due to problems with cataracts.” Ramus testified that even now he only sees light in one eye. On cross examination prosecutor Fred Weber didn’t ask to examine Ramus’ driver license to verify the one eye claim. The one eye claim would also haunt Ramus in later testimony.

Public records show the USS Tripoli was in training maneuvers off the coast of California during the entire ten months Ramus was in the Navy and the Tripoli wasn’t a nuclear powered vessel. The closest Ramus got to Viet Nam was the California coast.

Ramus testified having cataracts at age nineteen during his ten months in the Navy (November 9, 1970 – September 28, 1971), of being injured in the engine room of the USS Tripoli where he served temporary duty in Viet Nam before being transferred into the Navy’s nuclear program. In a 2002 federal suit Ramus brought against his employer, he claims to have sustained an unspecified back injury while on the job as a cook at Southwest Texas State (Texas State University). That suit was dismissed.

Unfortunately, none of this Ramus testimony was challenged by prosecutors, despite lack of employment verification, credible evidence showing Ramus was discharged from the Navy after only ten months, and that he lied about his duty assignments and top secret security clearance.

Ramus was asked by Higgins if he had ever been convicted of a crime. Ramus answered “No.” In fact, Ramus has been in Hays County courts on at least eight charges, including this deadly conduct charge, was twice convicted of being a public nuisance and once for leaving a vehicle unattended, all in criminal court.

Asked why he was carrying the shotgun when he approached the backhoe driver, Ramus responded, “I couldn’t run so I had to be ready to defend myself.” It was a surreal moment and demonstrated how Rams thinks – he was claiming self defense against a backhoe operator just doing his job and a woman mowing her pasture.

Then it was the prosecution’s turn to question Ramus. Ramus continued on his path of giving false and conflicting testimony.

Under questioning by First Assistant District Attorney Fred Weber, Ramus claimed he had purchased the shotgun in 1977, for hunting dove and duck and, “Hadn’t been hunting since his injury.”

Which injury? The 1971 injury he previously testified he sustained in the engine room aboard an unnamed nuclear naval vessel when he was a nineteen-year-old machinist mate with an FBI top secret security clearance? Ramus testified in Commissioners’ Court that he was a cook in the Navy. Or the back injury that he claimed from a car wreck on his honeymoon? Or the unsubstantiated injury he swore occurred in a kitchen at Texas State University where he worked as a cook? That suit was dismissed. Or perhaps it was the 2000/2001 injury Ramus testified he had suffered, herniated five disks while carrying a smoker that had set off the fire alarm and the reason he was using his cane today. Ramus offered no evidence to support his claims. Just his word.

Ramus didn’t explain how he could hunt dove and duck with his cataracts that left him able to, “only see light in one eye,” and caused him to be discharged from the Navy thirty nine years ago, or how he even passed the Navy eye sight enlistment qualifications at age nineteen with cataracts.

Nor could he explain discrepancies in his testimony about when the shotgun was loaded, what kind of ammunition he used to hunt dove and duck, and why his shotgun was illegal for hunting.

Ramus testified that he was cleaning the shotgun on his front porch when he saw the backhoe exhaust smoke and grew concerned “about his septic and property,” and “about his expensive septic system would be flooded.” “I defend myself when I can’t run,” Ramus said.

Weber noted that a shotgun in Texas may not contain more than three cartridges when hunting and that the Ramus shotgun had a capacity for five cartridges, and therefore required a plug to be legal for hunting. There was no plug. Moreover, deputies had found four shotgun cartridges in Ramus’ shotgun.

Weber went on to ask Ramus why one of the four cartridges recovered by the sheriff deputies contained a lead slug instead of bird shot? Ramus said the slug shot was for deer hunting but that he didn’t hunt deer. Weber continued by showing Ramus that his shotgun didn’t show signs of cleaning and askd if Ramus had loaded it? “No,” replied Ramus, and then changed to, “maybe two shells.” Weber noted again that deputies had found four cartridges in the gun shortly after arriving on the scene.

Ramus, who had just admitted approaching the backhoe driver while holding the shotgun and saying that, “I defend myself when I can’t run,” clearly had worked himself in an untenable position.

Then, in a 180 degree Jekyll and Hyde turn, Ramus refused to call Logan a liar, despite several opportunities offered by Higgins through his questions. But in his July 2007 suit against Hays County, Ramus called Logan vicious, vitriolic, and accused her of lying. Now Higgins offered up that Ramus was really a kind and gentle man who held no animosity toward Logan.

The prosecution’s four witnesses each gave independent accounts that provided a consistent sequence of event that led to the arrest of Nick Ramus on a charge of deadly conduct when Ramus allegedly confronted a backhoe operator with a loaded shotgun while the driver was spreading soil on Logan’s pasture, and then pointed the gun at Logan who was mowing weeds in her pasture. Ramus was his only witness

After both sides rested their case, Judge Rodriquez stood up, announced that she would announce her verdict within the week and then retired to chambers. A ruling hasn’t been issued and her office reported that she left Friday for continuing education.

I know that Nick Ramus is a pathological liar, and based on the American Psychiatric Association, I believe that Ramus is a sociopath.