A Gwinnett County jury has handed down a life sentence plus five years to Jorge Alberto Ramirez, 35, for the 2021 murder of 23-year-old Pedro Lopez-Belloso, prosecutors announced. During the trial, evidence showed that Ramirez shot Lopez-Belloso in the back of the head while seated behind him in a moving SUV along Jimmy Carter Boulevard. Despite Ramirez’s initial claims of the shooting being accidental, he was found guilty on charges that included three counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Ramirez had told police he felt uneasy because Lopez-Belloso was armed, and claimed a "weird feeling" compelled him to load his AR-15 rifle. Following the shooting, in statements obtained by FOX 5 Atlanta, he espoused a narrative of self-defense rooted in patriotic rhetoric. However, contradicting his self-defense claim, Ramirez said, "I don’t give a damn … There ain’t gonna be emotion of jealousy, envy, hatred."
The case took a turn when, during police questioning and as reported by WSB-TV, Ramirez expressed contempt for immigrants, stating that Lopez-Belloso wanted "to envy, hate, and be jealous on an American citizen of the United States of America." Ramirez also shifted his story over time, later telling prosecutors he was asleep when the rifle supposedly fell and discharged on its own — a claim rebutted by forensic analysis from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations which determined the rifle could not have fired without a human trigger pull.
Confronted with the weight of evidence, including the forensic analysis and his own incriminating statements, the jury found Ramirez's claims of accidental discharge and patriotic defense untenable. District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson expressed sorrow for the victim’s family in a FOX 5 Atlanta interview, stating, "This was a cruel and violent way to die. We grieve with Mr. Lopez-Belloso’s family and loved ones. In prosecuting this death, we send the message that no one has the right to determine who deserves to die."
