LA Man Sentenced To 25 Years To Life For Killing Transgender Woman
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A Los Angeles man was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in prison for the 2018 murder of a 33-year-old transgender woman he met online.
Kevyn Ramirez, 32, previously pleaded no contest in the killing of Victoria "Viccky" Ramos Gutierrez and a charge of arson in a case that could have carried a death sentence.
Gutierrez was killed Jan. 10, 2018 inside of a two-story multi-unit home at 1711 S. New Hampshire Ave., between Venice and Washington boulevards. According to a criminal complaint, Ramirez fatally stabbed the woman before setting her Pico-Union apartment on fire.
It took nearly five dozen firefighters 48 minutes to extinguish the blaze on the second floor of the building where they found Gutierrez's body.
Gutierrez was active in the transgender community and had come to L.A. from Honduras because she believed she could live a life free from persecution, according to friends.
At the time of her death, a program manager at the Los Angeles LGBT Center told the Los Angeles Times that Gutierrez had worked on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors transgender victims of violence.
"It's ironic that she ended up being a victim also," Mariana Marroquin told the newspaper.
Ramirez was also sentenced to a separate eight year sentence for the arson count, which Judge Craig Mitchell ordered to be served concurrently.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
