Gwinnett man gets life for fatally shooting immigrant in back of head with rifle

A Gwinnett County man will spend the rest of his life in prison for fatally shooting a 23-year-old immigrant in 2021 because the man was “jealous” of his U.S. citizenship, prosecutors said Monday.

Jorge Alberto Ramirez, 35, a self-described “patriot,” was found guilty of murder and other charges Friday in the April 2021 death of Pedro Lopez-Belloso, who was shot in the back of the head with an AR-15 rifle while riding in an SUV near Jimmy Carter Boulevard, according to the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office. Ramirez was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus five years, spokesman Marcus Garner said.

“This was a cruel and violent way to die,” District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson wrote in a statement Monday. “We grieve with Mr. Lopez-Belloso’s family and loved ones. In prosecuting this death, we send the message that no one has the right to determine who deserves to die.”

Gwinnett police responded early that morning to the 3400 block of Holcomb Bridge Road, where Lopez-Belloso was found sitting in the front seat of a Ford Explorer with a single gunshot wound, authorities said at the time. Two other people were in the SUV with Ramirez and the victim, and they spoke with officers at the scene, police said.

According to prosecutors, Ramirez, who was originally charged with involuntary manslaughter and weapons possession by a felon, had told police he was riding in the backseat along Jimmy Carter Boulevard when he felt nervous that Lopez-Belloso was armed. He said he had a weird feeling about the other people in the vehicle, so he chambered a round into the rifle, which accidentally fired while at his side, officials said.

But the DA’s office said evidence later showed the killing was premeditated, and that Ramirez had told the driver, “I don’t give a damn … There ain’t gonna be emotion of jealousy, envy, hatred.”

“After the shooting, when Ramirez was detained by Gwinnett County Police in the back of a patrol car, he was recorded saying he shot Lopez-Belloso because the ‘immigrant want(s) to envy, hate, and be jealous on an American citizen of the United States of America,’” according to prosecutors. “He later said, ‘…Our oath is if you try our patriots, our patriots will respond with the almighty great accuracy, and definition of a solution ... It’s simple, bro. I don’t give a (expletive) about no murders, I don’t give a (expletive) about no kidnappings. I don’t give a (expletive) about nothing.’”

In March 2022, after being charged, Ramirez changed his story again, saying he had been asleep in the SUV during the gunfire, according to the DA’s office. He said the rifle had been propped up in the backseat next to him and fired when it fell over. However, a GBI analysis of the weapon determined it could only have been discharged by someone pulling the trigger, prosecutors said.

Credit: Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office

Ramirez was found guilty of three counts of felony murder and one count each of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, according to the DA’s office.

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