MINEOLA, N.Y. — A Nassau County man has been indicted on murder and weapons charges for allegedly stabbing his mother to death in her Massapequa apartment on Christmas Eve, prosecutors announced.

Jeremy Emmanuel Lopez Ramirez, 27, was arraigned Tuesday before Judge Robert McDonald on charges of second-degree murder and two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded into custody. Ramirez is scheduled to return to court on February 19, 2025, and faces up to 32 years to life in prison if convicted.

“This defendant’s alleged actions tore his family apart when he fatally plunged a knife directly into his mother’s heart on Christmas Eve,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said in a statement. “A grief-stricken family was left to spend their Christmas mourning the senseless and tragic loss of their mother.”

Prosecutors said that on December 24, 2024, around 6:30 p.m., Ramirez attacked his mother, 57-year-old Josefina Ramirez Montero, in her upstairs apartment on Old Sunrise Highway. He allegedly stabbed her four times with a six-inch knife, including a fatal wound to her heart.

After the attack, Ramirez reportedly tried to bury the knife outside the building. His mother was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Ramirez remains in custody as prosecutors pursue the case in what they described as a devastating act of family violence.

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