TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Two men charged in the murder of Tucson Police Cadet Carlos Ramirez made official not guilty pleas in court Wednesday.
Our video of Alex James Barnett and Santiago Jorge Rogers is from other court appearances. Their attorneys objected to putting them on camera for Wednesday’s hearing. Lawyers often argue publicity hurts their clients’ chance of a fair trial.
The hearing was an arraignment—a formal statement of charges that officially launches a case. Both suspects officially pleaded not guilty but a not guilty plea is so standard at this early stage that Judge Catherine Monro entered not guilty pleas for them. They are due back in court next month for a case management hearing.
Tucson Police Cadet Carlos Ramirez was just a few days away from graduation when attackers entered his house. His child was there. So was his pregnant fiancee. She was shot but survived. He was shot and killed.
Before Ramirez was a police cadet, he was a corrections officer in the Pima County Jail but Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos says investigators believe the suspects and victims did not know each other.
He says Barnett and Rogers were working as a rip crew—-criminals who attack other criminals to steal money and drugs but the Sheriff says there was no sign of money or illegal drugs at Ramirez house. He says the attackers went to the wrong house.
