BRONX, N.Y. — A Bronx man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for brutally assaulting and starving two teenage siblings under his guardianship, Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced Wednesday.
Michael Ramos, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree assault in November and was sentenced by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Audrey Stone to six years in prison and three years of post-release supervision for each count, to run consecutively.
Between January 1 and April 17, 2023, Ramos subjected the victims, a 14-year-old girl and her 13-year-old brother, to horrific abuse in his Eastchester Gardens Housing Complex apartment. Investigators revealed that Ramos repeatedly pistol-whipped the children, beat them with other objects, and held a loaded gun to their heads while threatening to kill them. He also deprived them of food and prevented them from attending school.
The siblings were originally adopted as infants by Ramos’s mother, who passed away in 2019, leaving him as their legal guardian. DA Clark condemned Ramos’s actions, calling his treatment of the children “vicious” and noting that they are still dealing with the physical and emotional aftermath of their abuse.
“The defendant was the guardian of these siblings, and he viciously beat them and deprived them of food,” Clark said. “He has now been held accountable for his horrific treatment of these children.”
A Bronx man’s abuse of his teen wards ends in a 12-year prison sentence, but the trauma for the victims endures.
