A Texas woman is charged with murder after she allegedly shot her New Year’s date, then snatched his wallet as he lay dying.
Yvonne Raquel Ramirez, 19, of Baytown had recently met Josh McKinney and hatched a plot to rob him of his guns, prosecutors say.
McKinney—19-years-old and an aspiring Marine—met up with Ramirez on Dec. 31 near Mizell Street in Highlands. According to ABC 13, Ramirez allegedly demanded $2,000 for the return of McKinney’s firearms during the encounter, which took place around 4:30 a.m.
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One witness told cops that McKinney put Ramirez in a chokehold and pressed a pistol to her head. The bystander ran to call 911 and heard gunfire moments later, ABC 13 reported.
McKinney was found dead in the street. Ramirez took a bullet in her shoulder.
The suspect allegedly told cops she fired in self-defense, but Harris County prosecutors told ABC 13 that her story didn’t add up.
She allegedly first claimed McKinney was shot and killed when the gun dropped. She later told detectives that she grabbed the weapon and fired in self-defense.
Another witness interviewed by police said they saw Ramirez trying to manipulate McKinney’s body after the shooting.
Ramirez is being held on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court today. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office is investigating whether others were involved in the alleged murder, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Few other details of the incident were released Tuesday.
McKinney was a graduate of the Texas Challenge Academy, a five-and-a-half-month residential military academy operated by the Texas National Guard.
One former instructor, Regina Willis, said McKinney was determined to join the Marines and to take care of his mother. She called him a “standout cadet.”
“Josh was an amazing young man. He would give all he had to anyone he loved,” Willis told The Daily Beast, adding, “This death doesn’t seem real…”
Alyssa Solomon, another TCA instructor, said McKinney was a cadet starting in January 2016 through the summer of that year.
She told The Daily Beast he was goofy and always smiling, but determined to do his schoolwork and get good grades. “He always wanted to be a Marine. He really wanted to serve his country,” Solomon said.
Solomon kept in touch with McKinney even after he graduated. This summer, she was looking for people to donate fishing poles for an event, and McKinney volunteered. “He was like, ‘I can donate and I’ll come by after I get off work tomorrow.’ I wouldn’t even expect a young kid to offer to do stuff like that,” Solomon recalled. “He was mature for his age.”
McKinney reached out to Solomon for advice recently, as he was getting ready to enlist in the Marine Corps.
Solomon said she’s shocked by the allegations of robbery and guns surrounding his death; she never expected him to be involved with anything like that. “I feel like maybe he was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said. “I just hope really that’s what happened.”
“He was someone everyone wanted to be around,” Solomon added. “He was a great kid and a great student, and I’m never going to forget him.”
Another friend, Jose Quinton, 18, said McKinney quickly befriended him when he moved to Highlands and didn’t know anyone. “He would give the shirt off his back to a stranger if they needed it,” Quinton told The Daily Beast.
“He was always trying to make someone laugh and feel better,” Quinton added. “He was the most authentic person I can think of—just as real as they come.”
Meanwhile, Ramirez, the mother of a young daughter, seemed to gush about her plans for the future on Facebook.
One day before the shooting, she wrote: “Everything falling in place, i start my job monday, getting my car soon & then my apt. couldn’t be more blessed Thank you God.”
Facebook users are having a field day with the post, with one commenter writing, “Plot Twist.
Gets charged for murder next day.”
On Dec. 25, she posted, “HES MINES & FCK THE CONSEQUENCE THAT COME WITH IT.”
Bizarrely, she shared a Facebook meme in October that showed a woman flashing smiles in her police booking photos.
The text on the image read: “Me in jail after my patience runs out and I finally resort to violence.”
Ramirez’s Facebook intro noted her daughter’s name and declared her relationship status.
“SINGLE Bkuz aint nobody loyal,” she wrote.
