Ramiro Garcia, age 19, was ordered to serve a 19-48 month prison sentence and a 364-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to a felony and gross misdemeanor charge in Sixth Judicial District Court.
On October 20, 2020, Garcia pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit robbery, a category B felony in Nevada and one count of carrying a concealed weapon, a gross misdemeanor.
The felony charge carries the potential to be ordered to serve 1-6 years in prison with eligibility for probation and the gross misdemeanor has a potential maximum of 364 days in jail and/or a $2,000 fine.
In his arraignment hearing, Garcia admitted to conspiring with another person to steal personal property from two victims and carrying a handgun in a pair of shorts inside his jeans.
Garcia’s attorney, Humboldt County Public Defender Matthew Stermitz asked the court to follow the recommendations of the plea agreement and place Garcia on 36 months of probation on the felony and an additional 12-18 months probation on the gross misdemeanor charge, with the condition that he be placed into the Humboldt County Adult Drug Court program due to his self-admittance of a “methamphetamine problem” that led him to this situation.
“Him and other juveniles set up to do a marijuana purchase that turned out to be a robbery, Garcia was honest and upfront about what happened,” said Stermitz. “He was in possession of a firearm that was not loaded and didn’t have a clip in it.”
The DA’s office recommended that Garcia serve concurrent sentences without objection to probation at sentencing per the plea agreement.
“The state agrees with factual representations of counsel regarding the fact that the firearm he possessed was not loaded, that was true,” said Humboldt County District Attorney Michael Macdonald, “One of the other individuals that participated in this event did have a loaded handgun and one in the chamber, a very scary situation for these young individuals to be a part of.”
Garcia told the court that he has spent the past four months in regret and would like to apologize to the victims in the incident and asked to be placed on drug court so he could be with and support his family and that he just wants to get a job and stay off the drugs.
Macdonald said that no victims indicated that they wanted to appear at sentencing to give a victim impact statement.
The court ordered Garcia to serve 19-48 months in prison on the conspiracy to commit robbery category B felony charge with 100 days credit for time served and 364 days in jail on the carrying a concealed weapon gross misdemeanor charge, with the charges to run concurrent.
Garcia was ordered to pay a $25 administrative assessment fee and $153 DNA collection and analysis fee.
“I hear the arguments today of this event where the pistol didn’t have any clip or rounds in it but I can’t help but wonder if the people who were being confronted by this pistol in their faces or wherever it was pointed at them if they knew that; probably not,” said Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Michael Montero. “I don’t see many cases where a gun is pointed at them and told that there are not any shells in it.
In a sentencing hearing on a separate case last month in Sixth Judicial District Court, Garcia was ordered to serve a 364-day jail sentence on gross misdemeanor possession of a dangerous weapon (brass knuckles) charge.
In that case, the jail time was suspended and he was given the opportunity to serve 12 months of probation and ordered to obtain a substance abuse evaluation and complete any program deemed necessary by the evaluation.
