Hialeah dentist was gunned down before her testimony in an ID theft case. Two indicted

When Hialeah dentist Carmen Ramirez had her identity stolen, and credit cards opened falsely in her name, it seemed just another aggravating everyday economic crime.

Years later, Ramirez was preparing to testify against an Orlando man accused of swiping her identity but whom she had never met or seen. She never got to explain the headaches the ID thief had created. Instead, she became the victim of a much more savage crime — gunned down at close range as she walked into her office.

A Miami-Dade grand jury on Wednesday indicted two men suspected of her murder, one of them the brother of the man she was supposed to testify against in Orlando. Investigators believe Ramirez was gunned down because of her role as the star witness against Jose Ledesma, who has not been charged in the killing but is still awaiting trial for identity theft in Orlando.

Indicted for first-degree murder in Miami-Dade were his brother, Hector Ledesma, and Ralph Benjamin, both from the U.S. Virgin Islands. The two will likely return to court Friday for an arraignment on the upgraded charges, for which they could face the death penalty.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, in a statement on Wednesday night, said the grand jury’s indictment “represents their repugnance at this attempt to disrupt an ongoing criminal case in Orlando.”

“I and my prosecutors stand with our citizen jurors as we all loudly proclaim that intimidation of any kind will not work and will not be tolerated,” she said in a statement.

Investigators are working to build a murder or conspiracy case against Jose Ledesma, 34, who remains free on bond while waiting for his trial in an Orlando court.

Orange County prosecutors won’t say whether they will seek to revoke his bond, or even if trial will continue next month as planned; a spokeswoman did not return repeated requests for comment on Wednesday.

Orlando’s Public Defender’s Office, which represents Jose Ledesma, declined to comment on Wednesday. His brother and Benjamin remain in a Miami-Dade jail.

Hector Ledesma’s lawyer could not be reached for comment. A lawyer for Benjamin, 39, declined to comment.

Police in Central Florida say Jose Ledesma, also a native of the U.S. Virgin Islands, is a longtime swindler who has racked up over a dozen arrests over the past decade. He served two years in prison for identity theft and illegal use of credit cards in Orange County, getting out in 2017.

Most recently, Orlando police honed in on Ledesma in February 2018, after detectives said they identified him as a suspect possibly behind a series of identities being stolen to open fraudulent credit card accounts.

In one case, Orlando police said, a victim drove to Ledesma’s house to confront him. Ledesma pointed a black handgun at the man “saying he would kill him,” according to an arrest report.

Ledesma was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm. Detectives investigated further — sifting through trash outside Ledesma’s home. They found envelopes addressed to Ramirez, the Hialeah dentist, as well as another South Florida victim.

An Orlando detective called Ramirez, who told him that somebody had used her identity to start at least four credit card accounts. The hacker even managed to gain control of her cellphone line, police said. Police identified Ledesma on surveillance cameras using the fraudulent credit cards to make purchases at stores, according to court documents.

He was charged in 2018, and had been awaiting trial ever since. It was supposed to start Dec. 9.

But on Nov. 19, police say, Ramirez was gunned down on a staircase outside her office. Witnesses said the attackers sped off in a dark-colored 4-door BMW.

Hialeah police detectives pulled surveillance video that they say shows Benjamin and Hector Ledesma casing the dentist’s office the day before the shooting, even buying drinks at the Las 4 Hermanas supermarket next door.

On the day of the shooting, video showed Benjamin getting dropped off at the same market, where he bought a Heineken beer and Marlboro cigarettes just before Ramirez was shot. As Ramirez walked up the stairs, Hialeah police said, Benjamin “approached the victim and shot her numerous times.”

He then ran back toward the BMW, which zoomed off. Hialeah homicide detectives quickly identified the Ledesmas as people of interest in the case.

They learned Hector Ledesma, hours after the shooting, showed up to a state sex-offender registry office in Orlando saying he needed to return to the U.S. Virgin Islands for an emergency. Hector Ledesma had been convicted of a rape in St. Croix and was required to register with officials in Orlando, where he lived with his brother.

Hialeah police tailed Hector and Benjamin on a plane from Orlando. They were arrested when they arrived for a connecting flight at Miami International Airport on Nov. 21, according to court documents.

At police headquarters, Hector Ledesma told detectives he dropped Benjamin off to buy marijuana and “observed defendant Benjamin with both arms up in a shooting stance, and saw muzzle flash as numerous shots were fired,” according to a police report.

Benjamin refused to speak to detectives, according to an arrest report by Hialeah Detective Magy Montalvo..

Ramirez clung to life for weeks, even as doctors were forced to amputate her arms. On Dec. 19, however, she died of her injuries.