By Sharon Bernstein
Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.)
SACRAMENTO — Adel Ramos, who admitted to the bloody ambush killing of Sacramento police rookie Tara O’Sullivan in 2019, was sentenced to death on Thursday by a Sacramento Superior Court jury.
The verdict from the panel of eight men and four women quickly followed the end of closing arguments two days before in the second penalty phase of Ramos’ capital trial. A previous jury deadlocked in deciding his fate, prompting the retrial.
As the jury foreperson announced their decision, O’Sullivan’s mother, Kelley, sat quietly in the front row of the courtroom. She stayed silent, but the expression on her face shifted with visible emotion. After the hearing, she stayed behind, hugging Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Hightower and his investigators. A juror in a black sweater locked eyes with her and nodded as she left the box. Kelley nodded back.
Outside the courtroom, she and other family and friends shared hugs with the jurors and officers, including Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester, who had come to witness the verdict. Surrounded by her daughter’s friends on the force, Kelley O’Sullivan sat for some time in the black metal chairs that line the hallways of the courthouse, clutching a pair of handcuffs.
She declined to speak to reporters.
Ramos, 51, had pleaded guilty in August to the July 19, 2019, murder of O’Sullivan and the attempted murder of another officer. He carried out the attack from inside a Del Paso Heights home, where prosecutors said he had made “murder holes” to conceal his position and fire on officers responding to a domestic disturbance call.
O’Sullivan was shot and left critically wounded in a backyard while Ramos continued firing at police, preventing rescue efforts for nearly an hour. A standoff ended with his surrender.
Tara O’Sullivan, 26, was killed in the line of duty June 19, 2019. She had served on the force for six months. Sacramento Police Department
Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 moratorium, the jury’s decision underscores the legal authority prosecutors still possess to seek death sentences. Ramos becomes one of nearly 600 inmates currently condemned in California, even as executions remain indefinitely suspended.
During the trial’s penalty phase, jurors viewed harrowing footage capturing O’Sullivan’s final moments, including audio of her breathing and Ramos ranting from inside the house. Hightower, the lead prosecutor, told the jury he had personally asked to prosecute the case and urged them to “stand up for Tara.”
Defense attorney Peter Kmeto acknowledged the severity of Ramos’ crimes but asked jurors to weigh mitigating factors, including childhood trauma, mental illness and long-term methamphetamine use. Ramos’ past, Kmeto said, included seeing his father bleed to death at age five and growing up in a violent household.
Kmeto reminded jurors that California law allows for compassion, and that even the potential for mercy could justify sparing Ramos’ life. “Adel Ramos is a human being,” Kmeto said. “He’s not some demon.”
After the verdict was read on Thursday, Kmeto said he believed that jurors had taken his argument seriously, and had come to a verdict they felt was just in a very difficult case.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed, but the jury was very earnest and paid attention,” he said in an interview.
But the facts of the case — including Ramos’ extended ambush and his efforts to kill anyone who tried to help O’Sullivan — made a death sentence the more likely outcome, Kmeto said.
He and co-counsel Jan Karowsky said they had made a point of not diminishing the trauma experienced by the officers who survived that violent, deadly day, or criticizing the police department. After the trial, the jurors shook their hands, and one had tears in her eyes as she did so, he said.
“This was not us against the Police Department,” Kmeto said.
Daniel Chipp, O’Sullivan’s training partner when the ambush unfolded, was also in court Thursday. After the hearing, he shook the defense lawyers’ hands, leading Karowsky to comment that Chipp, who left the force after the shooting, was “an example of humanity at its highest level.”
Hightower declined to speak with The Sacramento Bee, but he thanked jurors for their work and accepted deep hugs from most of them.
“I know that this is not an easy thing to do,” he said.
Jurors from the prior trial, in which 11 supported death and one held out, returned to court to observe the proceedings. The earlier mistrial had prompted Superior Court Judge James Arguelles to encourage further deliberation, offering suggestions like juror role-play and changing discussion leaders.
O’Sullivan, 26, was in training at the time of the shooting and had graduated from the Sacramento Police Academy just six months earlier. Her killing galvanized support within the law enforcement community and led to several memorials, including renaming the H Street Bridge in her honor.
If the jury had again failed to reach unanimity, Judge Arguelles would have had the authority to impose a life sentence without parole. But the panel’s consensus, once approved by Arguelles, ensures the death sentence would be entered into record despite its uncertain practical outcome.
California has not executed a prisoner since 2006, and the death chamber at San Quentin has been dismantled. Legal experts note it can take decades to complete appeals for capital cases, meaning Ramos likely will remain incarcerated for life regardless of Thursday’s decision.
Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, whose office pursued the sentence, has argued that capital punishment offers justice to victims’ families. Ramos’ case marked one of his office’s high-profile efforts to keep the death penalty viable, even amid shifting state policy.
The formal sentencing is expected to be held in the coming weeks. Ramos will be transferred to state custody, where he joins hundreds of others awaiting an execution that may never come.
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