Trial on hold for alleged killer of Sacramento police officer Tara O’Sullivan. Here’s why
A Sacramento Superior Court judge suspended criminal proceedings Friday for a man accused of killing a rookie officer five years ago as defense attorneys sought to prove he’s mentally incompetent to understand the charges he faces.
Friday’s decision by Judge James Arguelles came as an expected weeklong bench trial, separate from the issue of mental competency, was underway to probe Adel Sambrano Ramos’ intellectual capacity. It concluded in May, court records show, and Arguelles had yet to issue a ruling.
Lawyers for Ramos sought to prove the defendant had an intelligence disability, disqualifying him from facing the death penalty in the slaying of Sacramento police Officer Tara O’Sullivan. Ramos has pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of the 26-year-old and the attempted murder of seven other law enforcement personnel during a June 19, 2019, standoff in North Sacramento.
But Arguelles said on Friday that Ramos, 50, has adequate intellectual capabilities and prosecutors can continue to seek capital punishment.
The judge also appointed two doctors to evaluate Ramos’ mental fitness, as part of the issue around mental incompetency, and anticipated learning the results by late August.
If Ramos is found mentally incompetent, the implications reach further than avoiding a sentence of death. The criminal trial would be suspended until he received mental health help and doctors determined he was competent to resume court proceedings.
Prosecutor Jeff Hightower objected to the defense’s effort to evaluate Ramos’ mental competency “this late in the game.” Since 2019, no doctor’s reports have surfaced questioning Ramos’ mental fitness, Hightower said during the hearing attended by Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester, several officers and O’Sullivan’s family and supporters.
“As a preliminary matter, the optics on this are pretty terrible,” he said while noting the trial is “ripe and ready to go.”
But Hightower conceded doctors should evaluate Ramos rather than encounter a doctor who finds him incompetent during trial or on appeal. While Ramos “was not showing signs of a psychiatric illness,” Hightower said, any future ruling on his competency could jeopardize the case.
Defense lawyers appeared to harbor little faith that Ramos would be found incompetent after all this time or that such a move could bypass his criminal trial.
”Candidly ... we anticipate moving forward with trial,” said defense attorney Jan Karowsky when discussing setting dates for a trial during Friday’s brief hearing.
O’Sullivan and Officer Daniel Chipp, who was training her, were called to North Sacramento that summer day to help a woman move out of a home she shared with Ramos on Redwood Avenue in the Noralto neighborhood.
Both officers approached the home when a high-powered rifle opened fire from inside the garage, striking O’Sullivan, who had graduated six months earlier from the Sacramento Police Department Academy. The Sacramento State graduate was severely wounded and lay on the ground nearly an hour before tactical officers were able to secure her rescue.
Ramos eventually surrendered to law enforcement after an eight-hour standoff.
