Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Wednesday, Dec. 11, that a Bronx man was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree assault in the beating and starving of a teenage brother and sister for weeks, as previously reported.

 

“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, who are still dealing with the trauma and physical effects of their brutal captivity.”

 

Clark said the defendant, Michael Ramos, 35, formerly of Burke Avenue in The Bronx, was sentenced on Wednesday to six years in prison and three years post-release supervision on each of two counts of second-degree assault, to run consecutively, by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Audrey Stone. She said Ramos had pleaded guilty to the charges on Nov. 1.

 

According to the investigation, as reported, between Jan. 1, 2023, and April 17, 2023, the victims, a 14-year-old girl and her 13-year-old brother, were living with Ramos in his apartment in the NYCHA Eastchester Gardens Housing Complex. The apartment initially belonged to the defendant’s mother, who had legally adopted the victims when they were infants.

 

The court heard that Ramos became guardian after his mother died in 2019. Prosecutors said that on multiple occasions, he held a loaded pistol to the victims’ heads and threatened to kill them. In addition, they said he pistol-whipped them and beat them with other objects, and he also starved the victims and kept them from attending school.

 

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Rachael Baughman and Christopher Conway of the child abuse/sex crimes bureau with the assistance of Astrid Borgstedt, trial counsel in the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, and under the supervision of Johanna Hernandez, deputy chief of the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, Mimi Mairs, chief of the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, and under the overall supervision of Adrienne Giunta, deputy chief of the Special Victims Division, and Joseph Muroff, chief of Special Victims Division.

 

Clark thanked Elaina Clarke, trial preparation assistant supervisor in the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes Bureau, for her assistance on the case. She also thanked NYPD Police Officers Kelby Castulo and Ginger Toth-Sipos, and NYPD Sergeant Anthony Lofaro of the 49th Precinct for their work on the case.