She was accused of murder for Tacoma house fire, plus 16 more arsons. Here’s the verdict

A jury found a woman guilty Wednesday of murder, 13 counts of arson and other felonies for lighting fires at about a dozen homes in Tacoma, one of which killed an 83-year-old man.

The 17 fires Sarah Ramey was accused of starting in Tacoma and Ruston put residents on edge in late January 2022 until investigators identified and arrested her with the help of a casino card she left at one blaze. At the height of the fires, as many as 11 were set in one night.

None were more serious than the fire Ramey started weeks before that series of arsons, a New Year’s Eve house fire in the city’s North End that left James Elliott dead of smoke inhalation. It was first thought to have been caused by a malfunctioning electrical wire, but further investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined it was set intentionally.

Jurors convicted Ramey, 45, of two counts of first-degree murder for killing Elliott, finding she caused his death in the course of committing arson or by engaging in conduct that created a grave risk of death and under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life.

Ramey was acquitted of the third murder count for Elliott’s death, which accused her of causing his death in the course of committing residential burglary.

She was also found guilty of two counts of attempted first-degree arson, two counts of first-degree identity theft, second-degree identity theft, second-degree burglary, residential burglary and theft of a motor vehicle.

The verdict comes after a trial that stretched over three months in Pierce County Superior Court. The jury of six men and six women deliberated for about 3 days before delivering their decision to Judge Angelica Williams.

With guilty verdicts on 23 criminal counts, it’s unclear how much prison time Ramey may get when she’s sentenced July 25. According to the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, defendants found guilty of first-degree murder with criminal convictions similar to Ramey face a standard sentencing range of about 34 to 45 years in prison. But the judge will have the option to give her a lengthier sentence.

Elliott’s son, Dan, and his wife, Lucia, hugged in the courtroom gallery after the verdicts were read. They and Elliott’s daughter, Elizabeth Keating, attended the trial for weeks while jurors heard testimony about the arson that burned their childhood home and killed their father.

“We’re very happy that justice was served,” Dan Elliott told The News Tribune after court adjourned.

Elliott said nothing could bring his father back, but he was grateful that the state had done its job and achieved justice. The case brought him a lot of sleepless nights, and he said he was happy to finally get some closure.

Keating said no matter what Ramey was found guilty of, she just hoped that the defendant got enough prison time to keep her from hurting anyone else.

“A lot of those homes had people in them at the time she set them on fire,” she said.

Jurors returned a number of special verdicts in the case, finding that 11 of the arsons or attempted arsons Ramey was convicted of involved multiple victims, such as the Jan. 26, 2022 fire at Park Terrace Apartments on North Pearl Street, which Ramey set in the doorway of the building, trapping residents and forcing them to escape through windows.

Keating later told the newspaper she and her family were “eternally grateful” for the jury taking time out of their lives to serve on the case.

Jurors also found that in three of the arsons, including 2 Rosemount Way, Ramey attempted to, or actually did cause monetary loss that was substantially greater than is typical for first-degree arson. Dan Elliott said the house is still standing, and now that the case is over he will have it surveyed. What’s next for the home remains to be seen. Keating said it’s beyond repair and will need to be torn down.

Prosecutors sought to prove that Ramey set fire to 16 homes, a garage and a vehicle between Dec. 30, 2021 and Jan. 26, 2022. She also was accused of stealing a Metro Parks pickup and using the stolen credit card of Elliott’s late wife to make $6,293 worth of purchases, about $4,000 of which was spent at Lowe’s.

Jurors acquitted Ramey of three arsons that occurred in Central Tacoma the evening before she set fire to 2 Rosemount Way. Deputy prosecuting attorney Claire Vitikainen declined to make a comment to The News Tribune after she and other attorneys met with the jury panel.

Ramey’s defense attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Mary K. High, wasn’t in court for the verdict Wednesday morning. Attorney Ryan Hogaboam filled in for her, and he declined to give a statement after court adjourned.

Near the end of closing arguments, which began the afternoon of June 26 and continued into the following morning, Vitikainen hammered home some of the state’s strongest evidence against Ramey while asking the jury to convict her of all 27 charges.

Cell-phone location data placed her at the location of a number of the arsons, and surveillance cameras captured her walking to and from some of the fires while wearing a Metro Parks Tacoma jacket that was found when police searched her residence.

Other evidence presented included the defendant’s panicked-sounding phone call to her mother following her arrest, in which Ramey pleaded for someone to go to her home that night to remove her clothing and keys before investigators could serve a search warrant.

Vitikainen asked jurors if Ramey sounded “desperate” and told them that the woman knew police would find the keys to the Metro Parks truck she stole and the high-visibility jacket she wore while setting some of the fires.

Cell-phone data, surveillance video and the phone call only took prosecutors so far. Location data did not place Ramey at 2 Rosemount Way on the evening of the fatal fire, something her defense attorney seized upon in her closing arguments.

Mary K. High, a veteran defense attorney in the Department of Assigned Counsel, asked jurors to consider the gaps in the state’s case and questioned how reliable the cell-phone location data was.

She also reminded jurors that a number of the victim’s neighbors testified about the fire during trial. They lived in a good neighborhood, she said. Elliott’s house, a 3,311 square-foot home built in 1909 was situated at the end of a winding residential road flanked by other century-old houses.

When it burned, according to court records , the smoke and flames drew one woman to the house shortly after 5:30 p.m. to see if Elliott had gotten out, but the whole front porch was already on fire and she got no reply when she yelled for the man.

Prosecutors said “everyone” came outside to see what was happening.

“Not a single one saw a stranger in the area,” High said.

The defense attorney told jurors her closing arguments would not address every charge leveled against her client and that she would largely focus on the murder and arson counts related to Elliott’s death.

At least four experts rendered three different opinions about the cause of the deadly fire, according to High, and prosecutors later conceded that when it comes to determining cause, there’s a fine line between it being found to be “undetermined” or that it was started intentionally.

High also tried to dispel the idea that Ramey was guilty of setting the fire just because the victim’s checkbook was found in the glove box of the Metro Parks truck she was accused of stealing.

The defense attorney reiterated that she was not talking about her client’s identity theft charges when she questioned how Ramey possessing the item meant she was at the house at the time of the fire. High told the jury in opening statements that multiple people went in and out of the burned home to loot before the fire investigation was reopened.

In prosecutors’ rebuttal, Vitikainen returned to some of Ramey’s suspicious internet searches, which included queries such as “my money got burned in a house fire,” “how to cash a stolen check without getting caught,” and searches for specific fires. One, according to Vitikainen, was particularly damning.

By Jan. 12, 2022, the Tacoma Fire Department had already determined that the fire that killed Elliott was accidental, and no murder and arson investigation was ongoing. That day, Vitikainen said Ramey made a search for an “arson investigation” happening between North 20th and 26th Streets, which 2 Rosemount Way sits between.

There was only one person in the world who could have known at the time that the fire was arson, the prosecutor said. The statement drew an objection from the defense. It was overruled.

“And who is doing that search? Sarah Ramey is doing that search,” Vitikainen said.

Earlier in her closing arguments, Vitikainen tried to give jurors some idea of why Ramey might have started the fires, while also telling them that her motive wouldn’t matter so far as it related to their verdict. The deputy prosecutor told the panel that Ramey, who had worked as a landscaper, was in need of money at the time, and there weren’t a lot of jobs for landscapers in the middle of winter in Western Washington.

Vitikainen suggested that starting fires at houses allowed Ramey easy access to burglarize them. She said starting a fire near an electrical panel, as Ramey allegedly did at times, led the fire department to shut off the home’s power, often driving its residents to stay elsewhere and leaving the home unprotected.

“So it’s right there, ready to be plundered,” Vitikainen said.