Ishemer Ramsey

A lawyer for Ishemer Ramsey is asking a Butler County judge to reverse a ruling that his client killed Melissa Barto, his girlfriend, in 2017. A hearing is scheduled for the end of the month to discuss the matter.

On Dec. 2, Common Pleas Judge William Shaffer sentenced Ramsey, 24, to life in prison for homicide and other charges after finding him guilty of killing Barto.

But in a recent court filing, Ramsey's lawyer, Christopher Capozzi, asked Shaffer for a judgment of acquittal. Capozzi argued the “prosecutor's misconduct was so pervasive and prejudicial” that it denied Ramsey's right to a fair trial.

The arguments in the motion also were made before Shaffer arrived at his guilty verdict, with Capozzi taking several opportunities during the four-day trial to accuse the Butler County District Attorney's Office of prosecutorial misconduct.

Capozzi also argues in the post-sentence motion that Shaffer's finding of first-degree murder against Ramsey was incorrect. Capozzi suggests the evidence presented during the nonjury trial proved Ramsey only committed voluntary manslaughter. First-degree murder, he said, should only be applied when the evidence clearly shows that a defendant intended to kill the victim. Not so in this case, Capozzi argued.

Capozzi notes that all the witnesses that Assistant District Attorney Terri Schultz, who prosecuted the case, called to testify said the murder occurred during the heat of an argument between Ramsey and Barto. During the trial, Capozzi said, Schultz did not show any evidence that proves Ramsey planned to kill Barto and, therefore, the first-degree conviction was inappropriate.

Capozzi made a third request in his motion.

During sentencing, Shaffer broke from sentencing guidelines for the other charges — including abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Guidelines called for probation upon Ramsey's release from prison, but Shaffer instead added two to four years to Ramsey's life sentence.

“In my opinion, those guidelines are absurd in a case like this,” Shaffer explained in court. Capozzi argued that Shaffer abused his discretion by doing so.

After Ramsey was sentenced, Schultz noted she would make a restitution request that likely will require Ramsey to pay $5,000 to $6,000. Shaffer granted Schultz 10 days to make a restitution request, but Capozzi took issue, arguing that since his client will be in prison, he has no means of income and any requirement to pay restitution, costs or fines would be “cruel.” He reiterated this argument in his post-sentence motion. “He is currently indigent and (with) the sentence imposed, life imprisonment, there is no reasonable possibility that he will ever have the ability to pay these costs,” he said.