A jury is now deciding the fate of a man accused of killing an Anchorage man over a $550 drug debt — a case more than six years in the making.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A jury is now deciding the fate of a man accused of killing an Anchorage man over a $550 drug debt — a case more than six years in the making. Closing arguments wrapped Tuesday in the trial of Elijah Ramirez, 30, who faces charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of 48-year-old Oscar Garcia.
Prosecutors allege Garcia was killed because he could not pay the $550 debt. Ramirez was 23 years old when Anchorage police arrested him, along with co-defendant Rhadames Marmolejos Jr., approximately one week after Garcia’s body was discovered. Both men face the same charges and are being tried separately. State Prosecutor Charles Atkinson argued Ramirez was in the backseat of a red Kia Soul when Garcia was shot multiple times from behind, and that phone records, surveillance video, and witness testimony all place him at the scene. “If you’re one of the two guys in the backseat of that Kia Soul when Oscar Garcia is shot from behind with two different guns ... under the law of accomplice liability, you are guilty of murder,” Atkinson told jurors. The state leaned heavily on testimony from two witnesses — one who drove the car that night, and the other a jailhouse informant who said Ramirez confessed to the killing. Atkinson also pointed to a hand-drawn map bearing Ramirez’s fingerprint, which they said Ramirez gave to the jailhouse informant showing where a weapon was disposed of in Westchester Lagoon. Defense attorney Dina Cale urged jurors to question the credibility of both key witnesses, arguing the witness who drove the car had her own motive to lie, and the jailhouse informant — who received a reduced federal sentence in exchange for his cooperation — had significant incentive to fabricate details. “How else do you get the reduction that this man got if you don’t have good details that the police don’t already know? You got to tell a good story,” Cale said of the jailhouse informant, arguing the informant could have pieced together details from court documents and other sources rather than from Ramirez himself. The defense also suggested the physical evidence — including a long hair found in Garcia’s hand — pointed to Marmolejos — not Ramirez — as the shooter, and that the state had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Ramirez was in the backseat at all. Marmolejos, who was released from federal custody in July 2019 — just months before Garcia’s death — has a separate status hearing scheduled for May 5. In 2013, he was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison for drug trafficking.Sand Point teen found 3 days after going missing in lakeSome families express frustration as Mat-Su bus driver strike continues ‘Like a jet blasted you in the face’: 85 mph Arctic storm winds trap 150 people at Alaska basketball tournament
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