Thermal man pleads not guilty in alleged hate killing

A former Pizza Hut delivery driver pleaded not guilty Thursday to killing a gay co-worker because of the victim’s sexual orientation.

Thermal resident Miguel Angel Bautista Ramirez, 25, was ordered May 18 to stand trial on charges of first-degree murder in the July 13, 2014, shotgun death of 20-year-old Juan Ceballos in Mecca.

A special circumstance allegation of committing a murder during a hate
crime could make him eligible for the death penalty if he’s convicted. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek capital punishment.

Ramirez, who is being held without bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, is due back in court on Aug. 28 for a trial-readiness conference.

During the preliminary hearing at the Larson Justice Center, a Pizza Hut manager testified that Ramirez seemed obsessed with the question of whether Ceballos was gay. The witness said the defendant often used slurs to refer to the victim and that the two delivery drivers were once caught in a dishwashing area of the restaurant squaring off, Ramirez brandishing a small pocket knife and Ceballos an electronic stun gun.

Ceballos was described as a private person who rarely discussed his sexual orientation with anyone.

“Anyone who talked to Juan knew that he was (gay),” Liana Pena, who supervised the two men, testified.

On the night of the shooting, Ceballos left work and stopped at a gas station sometime after 11:30 p.m., Riverside County sheriff’s investigator Nelson Gomez testified.

Surveillance video shows a gold-colored pickup truck appearing to follow Ceballos’ silver sedan into the gas station property, then its headlights are switched off. When Ceballos left the business, the gold pickup appeared to follow, Gomez said.

At the time of the killing, Ramirez drove a gold Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, according to authorities.

As Ceballos arrived at his home in the 65-000 block of Dale Kiler Road, he sent a text message to his 17-year-old brother that read “come,” Gomez testified. Moments later, the brother went to the window and saw his brother in the drivers’ seat of his car, as a suspect described as a stocky Hispanic man with a light complexion and dark clothing walked up, pointed a shotgun into the driver compartment and fired, Gomez said.

The gunman racked the shotgun and fired again, the witness told investigators. Medical examiners determined each of the the three shotgun wounds Ceballos suffered would have been fatal, Gomez said.

A search of the suspect’s home turned up a receipt for a shotgun pistol-grip, which Ramirez had allegedly purchased online in the weeks before the killing, Gomez said.

The murder weapon was never found.

Ramirez, who Gomez said had lost about 50 pounds since the killing, was arrested in Coachella 15 days after the shooting.