{"id":359576,"date":"2026-06-13T19:16:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T19:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/359576\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T19:16:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T19:16:36","slug":"fresno-man-found-not-guilty-because-insane-gets-31-to-life-for-mothers-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/359576\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno man found not guilty because insane, gets 31 to life for mother\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A Fresno man with a history of mental illness was sentenced to 31 years to life in prison Friday for the beating death of his 62-year-old mother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Prosecutor Kelly Smith said Brad Ramirez, 35, was supposed to be having dinner with his mother, Shirla Ramirez, in her central Fresno home on Jan. 20, 2025. But for an undetermined reason, Ramirez attacked his mother with a hammer, killing her. Ramirez died of blunt force trauma.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article298998695.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Her son was arrested and charged;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Her son was arrested and charged&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Her son was arrested and charged<\/a> with his mother\u2019s killing. But a question arose about his mental competency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Superior Court Judge Daniel Brickey said Ramirez was found not guilty by reason of insanity after being evaluated by two psychiatrists. Ramirez also was evaluated by the Department of State Hospitals\u2019 Conditional Release Program, which prepared a placement evaluation for the court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cBased upon those previously referenced reports, as well as the placement evaluation, this court finds that the defendant has not been restored to sanity,\u201d Brickey ruled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ramirez will serve his sentence at a state hospital where the \u201cfocus of treatment is to stabilize their condition and return them to trial competency so the court may adjudicate their pending charges,\u201d according to the California Department of State Hospitals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Clad in a yellow jumpsuit, usually reserved for high-risk inmates, Ramirez stood as his aunt, Kerry Bash, tearfully spoke about being \u201cunable to wrap my head around what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">She said the family agonized over not knowing who killed their loved one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe were living in shock and confusion waiting for answers, and then the truth finally emerged,\u201d she said. \u201cImagining what she had endured has been unbearable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Court records show Ramirez had been arrested several times in 2016 for felony assault but was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was sent to a state hospital in San Bernardino County, where he was treated for several years.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Officers found 62-year-old Shirla Ramirez inside her home unresponsive. She was pronounced dead on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"541\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6593928471339584fcc0aab864078049.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Officers found 62-year-old Shirla Ramirez inside her home unresponsive. She was pronounced dead on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>(FRESNO POLICE DEPARTMENT)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Fresno man with a history of mental illness was sentenced to 31 years to life in prison&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[146333,112,114,113,64959,121793,146335,146334,146336],"class_list":["post-359576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-brad-ramirez","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-kelly-smith","tag-mental-competency","tag-not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity","tag-shirla-ramirez","tag-superior-court-judge-daniel-brickey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}