ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A St. Johns County man who killed a car repossession worker and shot another in March has been sentenced to life in prison.
Jesse Ramirez, 51, pleaded no contest to murder and attempted murder charges in exchange for prosecutors not asking for the death penalty. He has no chance of parole.
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Prosecutors said Ramirez killed 48-year-old Wilfred Rivera and shot 31-year-old Delbert Power Jr. as they were repossessing his pickup truck March 2. Power said in court that Rivera was his boss and best friend.
They said the two had contacted Ramirez that day to say they were coming. Both victims were employees of Atco Bennett Recoveries and lived in Jacksonville. Rivera owned the company.
Prosecutors said Ramirez was on the phone with his finance company when the men arrived. They said his wife was in the house when he opened fire. Prosecutors said the men had been there for 10 minutes and were leaving when they were shot.
Ramirez told a judge that he had recently hit hard financial times and was having problems paying his bills.
"My husband was a hard-working man. He enjoyed what he did," Rivera's wife, Illena Rivera, said Friday. "He got murdered over a car, selfishly."
"Had he been given the chance to take that truck off the boom, he would have done so gladly. He was never given that chance or opportunity to do so," she said.
Family friend and former repo company owner Jean Bennett blames Rivera's death on lack of training of people in the credit industry. She believes the finance workers should have warned Rivera that Ramirez was angry and threatened to kill.
The banks and the finance companies need to train their personnel, and if they can't do that, the repossessor can," Bennett said.
"His dream was always to own his businesses. He accomplished that dream and was very proud," Illena Rivera said.