Jury convicts Athens man of assaulting UGA student in her apartment in 2019

A Clarke County Superior Court jury convicted a man Friday on charges he assaulted a University of Georgia student during a burglary of her apartment.

The verdict was handed down against Jose Antonio Ramirez, 26, who was convicted of simple battery, battery, theft, false imprisonment and burglary. The jury did not convict on three other felony charges, including aggravated assault and robbery by force.

Ramirez, represented by Legal Aid attorney Will McIntosh, will be sentenced at a later date by Judge Lawton Stephens.

The trial was the second for Ramirez in less than a year. In July 2021, a mistrial was called after the jury deadlocked at 10-2 to acquit him on the charges.

Western Circuit Assistant District Attorneys Mikaela Henderson and June Teasley presented testimony showing the assault occurred about 3 a.m. on Oct. 28, 2019, after the victim, a 23-year-old student living in an apartment complex off Oconee Street, had walked from downtown to her apartment.

Upon reaching the apartment, the victim testified a man behind her forced his way inside when she opened the door.

Athens-Clarke police detectives obtained surveillance video from downtown cameras that showed a man, which they described as consistent with the description of Ramirez, following the woman.

The woman testified she believed the man intended to rape her due to the way he began touching her body, but the assault was interrupted when her roommate came out of a bedroom.

The attacker took her cellphone before he left the apartment, she testified.

The woman later identified Ramirez as her attacker saying she was “one-thousand percent certain” he was the man.

Police Detective Hunter Blackmon testified he went to Walmart off Lexington Road after the victim’s cellphone was pinged at that location. Blackmon confronted Ramirez, who had the victim’s cellphone, which he told the officer he had found.