Still in jail

BROWNSVILLE - Carla Ramos has lived many seasons of life in the nearly three years she has spent in the Cameron County jail, where she has seen the birth of her baby and the death of her sister during a visit.

And she hasn't even gone to trial yet.

"I feel bad. Unfortunately, she has no choice," her attorney Hector Garza said.

Ramos, 26, is charged with murder in the Jan. 24, 2006 death 76-year-old Carmen Jacobson. Prosecutors said Ramos's former boyfriend, Alfonso Granados Lucas, 26, strangled Jacobson in her house during a robbery.

Ramos and her cousin Jose Luis Gutierrez, 24, were in a car outside during the incident, investigators said. Gutierrez also was charged. Lucas faces a possible death penalty.

The three await trial since their arrests in September 2006.

Ramos maintains that she didn't know what Lucas was doing. Ramos was six months pregnant at the time. Her baby's name is Esperanza, which translates to Hope.

Her case has been reset and continued approximately 10 times. And a new date has not been set.

Ramos is not without advocates.

"She has not had her day in court," former jail chaplain Gail Hanson said.

Hanson keeps in contact with Ramos by telephone and visits her four children under their grandmother's care.

"Her greatest ally during the first year of her incarceration was her beloved sister Yolanda, who dropped dead in the jail visitation room during one of their talks," Hanson said. Ramos's sister died Jan. 25, 2007.

Amid plea agreements with the District Attorney's Office, she unwaveringly maintains her innocence in letters to state District Judge Abel Limas, "porque yo no hice ningun crimen (because I didn't commit any crime)."

"I have to persevere for my babies," Ramos wrote.

Garza indicated that it would not be advantageous for Ramos to be tried before Lucas because she would be a witness in the trial against him.

Two other capital murder trials are scheduled before Lucas' trial.

District Attorney Chief First Assistant Chuck Mattingly issued a statement that the state has announced it is ready for trial on five occasions, but that the case has been continued on Ramos's request.

Mattingly said that the court has not reset the case and that the District Attorney's Office remains vigilant in its pursuit of justice for Jacobson's family.

Limas did not respond to a request for comment.