Nebraska Supreme Court upholds murder conviction in 2017 Tecumseh prison riot

A man charged with murdering a fellow inmate during a riot at a Southeast Nebraska prison nearly a decade ago saw that conviction upheld by the state Supreme Court this week.

Ruling on State v. Ramos Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the previous ruling of the Johnson County District Court and affirmed the murder conviction previously handed to Eric Ramos. This was the latest stop in a long line of unsuccessful appeals from Ramos' camp stemming from an incident at a notoriously dangerous institution that initially occurred in 2017.

Ramos was an inmate at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution at the time when a fellow inmate was left for dead after a riot. According to trial evidence, Tecumseh correctional officers found seized illegal alcohol from one of TSCI's housing units, which sent the inmates into an uproar.

One of the inmates, Michael Galindo, was attacked by ten to 15 others in the prison yard. He retreated to the gallery, where four of the inmates followed him and repeatedly stabbed him. Later, one of those four returned alone and stabbed Galindo again, prompting him to retreat to a cell - the window of that cell was later smashed with part of an ice machine, and fire was spread through the room.

Galindo was found dead in the cell, and his autopsy determined the cause of death was "smoke inhalation exacerbated by sharp force and blunt force injuries."

Through extensive review of video footage from the altercation, investigators identified Ramos as one of the main perpetrators of Galindo's death, and charged him with first degree murder, use of a weapon to commit a felony, and tampering with evidence.

Ramos has since appealed that initial conviction multiple times. A mistrial was declared at one point, and after two interlocutory appeals in 2021 and 2022, the case was tried before a jury, which found Ramos guilty on all counts. Johnson County District Court subsequently determined that "Ramos was a habitual criminal" and sentenced him to life imprisonment for murder and to additional terms of imprisonment for the remaining convictions.

Ramos had since appealed that conviction, charging the long procedure violated his rights to due process and a speedy trial. But this week the Nebraska Supreme Court said it "was unconvinced" by many of those claims, and upheld Ramos' life sentence.

It has certainly been a long process to get to this point for an incident that occurred in 2017, but the Supreme Court held that many of the delays in the case - mistrial aside - came because Ramos' camp continually filed for continuances, mistrials, discharges, or appeals, all of which lengthen the time needed to find a resolution by definition. 

"Most of the delay in this case was attributable to Ramos’ pretrial motions and interlocutory appeals," the Supreme Court's ruling reads. "The delay caused by the mistrial itself—the only delay Ramos complains of—was relatively short and not the result of a deliberate attempt by the State to delay trial for a tactical advantage. And while Ramos claims that he was prejudiced, he provides little detail as to how."