85-year sentence upheld in 1993 slaughter of Outlook family

An appeals court has upheld the 85-year prison sentence for a man who helped kill an Outlook family of four when he was 14 years old.

The Court of Appeals Division 3 in Spokane unanimously rejected Joel Ramos’ argument that a Yakima County Superior Court judge could not sentence him to consecutive adult sentences because he was a juvenile at the time of the 1993 crime.

The court found that Judge Douglas Federspiel considered arguments about juvenile brain development and Ramos’ efforts at rehabilitation when he resentenced him in 2013 and added five years to the sentence.

The decision represented Ramos’ fifth appeal in the case, and it might not be the last.

Ramos’ attorney, Nancy Collins of the Washington Appellate Project, said she needed to further review the latest decision before deciding whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court. She said the state’s high court decision to send another juvenile case back for resentencing this week may be relevant.

Deputy Prosecutor Ken Ramm, who handled Ramos’ case , anticipates another appeal, but thinks Ramos may be running out of grounds to argue.

“It is the beginning of the end, so to speak,” Ramm said of the court’s opinion.

Ramos and another boy, Miguel Gaitan, were 14 when they murdered the Skelton family in their Liberty Road home. Gaitan was found guilty of aggravated first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole.

Ramos pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the deaths of Michael Skelton, his wife Lynn, and their son, Jason, 12, and first-degree murder in the death of the Skelton’s youngest son, 6-year-old Bryan.

Prosecutors say Gaitan and Ramos forced their way into the home, where Gaitan bludgeoned and stabbed Skelton and his wife and killed their older son as he tried to defend his mother.

Ramos killed Bryan, who was hiding under his bedsheets, to eliminate him as a witness, according to court documents.

Ramos first appealed his sentence in 2006, arguing that he should have received a 25-year sentence because his youth, unstable upbringing and other factors that were not considered by the court. The state Supreme Court ordered a hearing in 2011 to fix a technical glitch in Ramos’ probation, but his attorney used the opportunity to challenge the sentence, which the Superior Court upheld. That ruling was appealed, resulting in the 2013 hearing, in which the 20-year sentences were upheld for the killings of Michael, Lynn and Jason Skelton, but Federspiel tacked on an additional five years for the death of Bryan, describing Ramos’ decision to kill the child as “monstrous.”

“When I look at this case, I do not see impulsive acts. These acts were planned,” Federspiel said at the sentencing. “Mr. Ramos and Mr. Gaitan armed themselves. They entered both available exits to prevent escape. They killed each family member systematically. Then they killed the last child for the stated purpose of eliminating witnesses.”

Collins argued on appeal that using standard-range sentencing precluded Federspiel from taking mitigating factors such as age or prospect for rehabilitation into account. She also said that Ramm had made comments to lead Federspiel to impose a stiffer sentence.

But the court found that Federspiel considered factors such as teenager’s brain development and tendency for impulsive acts in his decision. It also found that, while Federspiel could have ordered the sentences be served concurrently, but was within his authority to impose a series of consecutive sentences that were still within state guidelines.