Ezequiel Ramirez received life without parole plus 35 years after admitting torture murder.
VISALIA, Calif. — The family of 23-month-old Joziah Ramirez told prosecutors there was no closure as his father was sentenced to life without parole for torturing and killing him in 2020.
The May 20 sentencing of Ezequiel Carlos Ramirez ended the murder case with a permanent prison term, but the family’s statement described grief as unfinished. Ramirez, 28, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with the special circumstance of torture and seven felony prostitution-related counts. A Tulare County judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 35 years. Joziah’s mother, Jasmine Blase, still faces sentencing for felony child endangerment.
“There is no closure in a case like this only resolution,” Joziah’s family told prosecutors, saying closure suggests pain can be packed away while resolution recognizes that grief remains. Their statement stood beside prosecutors’ description of Joziah before the abuse that killed him. Authorities said he was almost potty-trained and was described as smart and active. He was 23 months old when he was found unresponsive in a Visalia motel room. Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward said Ramirez’s brutality and callousness stood in contrast with the child’s innocence and vulnerability. Ward described Joziah as bloodied, burned, bruised and broken by the person who should have protected and cared for him.
Prosecutors said the fatal attack happened June 5, 2020, after Ramirez, Blase and Joziah moved from a Fresno hotel to a motel in Visalia. Authorities said the move was connected to Ramirez’s pimping and pandering criminal enterprise. While Blase was away, Ramirez severely abused Joziah, prosecutors said. He did not call for medical help. Instead, authorities said, he sent a message telling Blase to return. When she arrived, Joziah was unresponsive and breathing irregularly. Blood was on bedding and elsewhere in the room. Ramirez told Blase that he had only kicked the child in the stomach and forbade her from calling an ambulance, prosecutors said. He then called a family friend and claimed Joziah had fallen down stairs.
The record described a rapid flight from the motel. Prosecutors said Ramirez deleted information from Blase’s phone and was recorded on surveillance footage leaving on foot. Police and emergency services arrived at about 11 p.m., minutes after he fled. Joziah was rushed to Kaweah Health Medical Center and later airlifted to Valley Children’s Hospital. He was declared brain-dead and died June 9, 2020. Later that night, after leaving the motel, Ramirez sent messages to Blase that included “I’m gone,” “I’ll never see u again” and “I’m so sorry.” Prosecutors said he also called a friend in Fresno in the early morning hours and claimed he had been in a car accident and needed to be picked up.
The injuries documented by doctors and investigators were severe and widespread. Prosecutors said Joziah had fractures to both sides of his skull, brain swelling and bleeding, fractures on both sides of his ribcage, and bruises, burns and abrasions on his extremities, limbs, torso and genitals. The injuries were consistent with being struck, shaken, thrown, kicked and burned, authorities said. The autopsy found that Joziah died from blunt force trauma to the head. Prosecutors said the medical findings showed inflicted, non-accidental trauma and did not match Ramirez’s later effort to minimize what happened. They also said abuse had been ongoing before the motel room attack. Blase told investigators Ramirez’s treatment of Joziah ranged from verbal abuse to lifting the child off the ground by his hair.
After leaving the motel, Ramirez stayed with a friend in Fresno and left behind a duffel bag of clothing spotted with blood, prosecutors said. During the ride to Fresno, he was emotional and repeated that he did not have to do it, authorities said. He was not arrested until June 9, the day Joziah died. Prosecutors said that while law enforcement searched for him, Ramirez kept trying to recruit women into his prostitution operation. After his arrest, he first denied knowing what happened and denied even being around his child. Investigators later confronted him with evidence, and he admitted he had been present, but said he did not hurt Joziah “that bad” and “didn’t cause that much damage.”
The case also exposed earlier criminal and family circumstances. Prosecutors said Ramirez impregnated Blase when she was 15. At the time of Joziah’s death, Ramirez was on parole for robbery and statutory rape. A parole condition barred him from contacting Blase and Joziah, prosecutors said, yet he was in contact with them and living with them. Authorities said Blase had turned 18 by the time of the killing and that Ramirez was pimping her out along with at least one other woman in Tulare and Fresno counties. The guilty plea he entered in March 2026 covered both the murder and the prostitution-related felonies, joining the fatal abuse case with the exploitation case prosecutors described.
Ramirez and Blase were originally charged in June 2020. Both faced murder, assault on a child causing death and torture charges. Ramirez also faced a special circumstance allegation of murder involving torture and allegations tied to prior felonies. Prosecutors said at the time that Ramirez could face death or life in prison without parole if convicted. Nearly six years later, his guilty plea brought the case to sentencing without a trial. Blase’s case took a different course. Prosecutors said she was charged as a co-defendant for failing to protect Joziah from Ramirez. She pleaded guilty in 2021 to felony child endangerment and faces a maximum of six years in prison.
The final scheduled proceeding is Blase’s June 17, 2026, sentencing. Ramirez’s punishment has been imposed, and the family’s statement remains part of the court record: not an ending to grief, but a resolution of the criminal case against Joziah’s father.
Author note: Last updated June 21, 2026.