Two years after Gail Cleavenger’s disappearance, her son, Gregory Ramos, 17, has confessed to her murder.
On Wednesday, Ramos pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, abuse of a body, and tampering with evidence.
In his confession, Ramos admitted that in 2018, at 15, he got into a fight with his mother over his grades. During the altercation, he began strangling Cleavenger, then called two friends to help him dispose of her body and stage the crime scene as a robbery.
In his initial story, he said that he called 911 after he got home from school on November 2, 2018, because his house was robbed and his mother was allegedly missing. However, her vehicle was still running in the driveway.
After more interrogation, Ramos switched his story and stated that he and his mother fought over a “D” he had gotten in school. The altercation then led to strangulation, which, according to Ramos, took 30 minutes. Then he called friends to help him cover up the murder.
Both friends have been charged as adults with being accessories after the fact to a capital felony. They have entered not guilty pleas.
Like his associates, Ramos has also been charged as an adult. During court proceedings, his public defender told the judge that his client regrets what he did and is trying to be a better person behind bars.
“He’s extremely remorseful, and he regrets his actions every day,” Matthew Phillips, Ramos’ public defender, told the court, according to WKMG-TV, “and he’s been trying to be productive; while he’s been in custody, he has been obtaining a high school diploma.”
He faces 45 years in prison on the first-degree murder charge; however, because he was a minor when he killed his mother, the case can be reviewed after 25 years. His legal team asks that Ramos serve the two lesser charges concurrently with the murder charge. Once released, he will spend the rest of his life on probation.
His sentencing is scheduled for January 2021.
