Ramey, being walked from the courthouse by the sheriff, and court security
RICHLAND CO., Ill. - The man convicted of the brutal rape of Sabrina Stauffenberg in November 2016 has been sentenced to the maximum for the crime to which he pled: 60 years in IDOC.
While the courtroom holding nearly every family, extended family, and friends of the 8-year-old, who was murdered the day before Thanksgiving that year, was not packed to capacity today (Thursday, March 22), this was by far the largest crowd in attendance since the commission of the crimes and the arrest of Glen Ramey, 54, most recently of Olney.
Most readers are familiar with the case of Ramey, the man originally from deep southern Illinois (Johnson County) who followed an ex up from Johnson, first to Crawford County (Palestine), then to Olney in Richland, where he'd been since his release from Choate Hospital in Anna in 2013. Ramey, who has been in and out of mental hospitals, juvenile institutions, jails and prisons most of his life. If you have an online membership to the e-Edition, you can click this link to read all the Ramey articles, most of which are on the free side, but the most intensive ones being on the e-Edition side.
Sabrina Stauffenberg
In brief: On the evening of Wednesday, November 23, 2016, Sabrina Stauffenberg, 8, of Olney, disappeared from the front step of the home on Whittle Avenue in Olney that she shared with her mother, Nancy Stauffenberg, and guardians, Nancy's sister Margie and Margie's boyfriend, the late Tim Eads. Sabrina had been waiting on a church bus to pick her up for evening services, but there was no service that evening owing to the Thanksgiving holiday, something she didn't know. Somehow, she was lured off the front step without anyone in the house knowing. A couple of hours later, her body was found in a lot north of the vinegar production facility a block and a half from her house. She had been raped and suffocated. Several men in or around the house were taken in for questioning and swabbed for DNA. Ramey was one of those. DNA evidence linked him to the rape. He was charged with both the rape and murder. He pled mental unfitness, a ploy that he was used to using - and getting away with - in other crimes. A trial was held in Effingham this past September to determine fitness, and despite his continued ploys, Ramey was found fit to stand trial...at which time everything changed.
The public was denied the opportunity to learn the full details of the case when Ramey entered an open plea of guilty in late January, essentially throwing himself on the mercy of the court, in this case being Judge Larry Dunn, resident judge in Richland. Sentencing was set for today...and again there are many questions unanswered. These will be examined more fully in the future when Ramey gets past his appeals dates and opportunities.
Today, however, the public did get to hear, in brief, some of the details, as well as Ramey's excuses, if not the full story as to why he wasn't convicted of murder.
The hearing was supposed to start at 10, but it was late. Judge Dunn had imposed a "no electronics in the courthouse" edict owing to the number of perceived death threats issued online and in general talk around Olney, toward Ramey. While this might have been a wise precaution, media ordinarily are allowed to take cameras or other electronic devices at least into the courthouse, if not the courtroom. This was prohibited today; the authorities compensated by very publicly walking Ramey out of the courthouse, and across the street to the jail, very slowly so media could get photos and vid. (This didn't stop us from chewing on our sheriff, Andy Hires, a little bit, as statutorily, keeping cameras out of the courthouse really isn't an option and shouldn't be done...but Andy's a good guy, and didn't hold it against us.)
At eight minutes after 10, Ramey was brought into the courtroom shackled and handcuffed. Judge Dunn asked a deputy to unlock Ramey's handcuffs so Ramey could write notes to his defense attorney, James Lane, if Ramey so desired, in order to assist in his own defense, adding that if Ramey "did anything" that would cause concern for the safety of anyone in the courtroom including himself, the judge would direct the deputy to put the handcuffs back on.
The presentencing investigation (PSI) report was the first thing addressed, with Dunn asking both defense counsel as well as the state's attorney, Brad Vaughn, if they had any objections to the PSI; neither side had any.
The state's only witness called was Richland County Detective Rob Sakowicz, who is on the Child Death Investigation Task Force (CDITF) as well as being a three and a half year investigator for the Richland County Sheriff's Department.
The vicinity of Sabrina's house, the path taken to the Goosenibble area, and where Sabrina's body was found north of the vinegar plant
Assistant Richland County State's Attorney Cole Shaner lead the questioning. Aided by a projection screen which showed a map of the area showing South Whittle, the railroad tracks through the center of Olney, West South Street and West North Street (the two streets boundary-ing the block on Whittle where Sabrina resided), Sakowicz explained what happened that day in November 2016.
Sakowicz testified that he had been contacted by Holly Finney of Illinois State Police in District 12, who advised him that there had been an 8-year-old child found dead in Olney, and that there would be a command post set up involving investigating agencies. As a CDITF investigator, his presence would be required. He joined over 30 investigators from various agencies, including not only ISP, Richland County and Olney, but also Flora, Clay County, Centralia, Salem, Marion County and others. During the briefings at the command post set up at the Richland County Sheriff's Department, Sakowicz said, they learned how it had all come about.
He said that a missing persons report had been made at about 7:23 p.m. the night of November 23, 2016, and that it was 8-year-old Sabrina who'd been turned in as missing at that time after she'd last been seen walking out the front door of the residence to meet the church bus. The last people to have seen her were her mom and guardians, as stated above, at about 7 p.m. She was last observed talking on the phone to Susan Vaughn, her grandmother/Nancy and Margie's mom, so they all knew she'd had a cell phone with her.
Sakowicz said officers began searching immediately after the missing persons report, and he himself contacted the cell phone carrier to get a ping from that particular phone, which had an accuracy radius of 18 meters. On the map on the projection screen were pins that had been dropped by Sakowicz to mark the various scenes.
Sakowicz said that Olney police officers Mike Peavler and Dan Harmon, along with deputy Tim Moore of the Richland County Sheriff's Department, were tasked with searching the areas along Camp and South streets. Moore very quickly located a glow of light in the wooded treeline north of the rail line where businesses had some storage buildings on the north side of the vinegar plant. When Moore investigated, he found a small fire. Burning were items of clothing that Sabrina had been wearing when she walked out of her house to wait on the stoops: Brown boots, blue pants, and a black jacket with stars on it, along with a pair of glasses with red flames. Sakowicz said it was raining, and that they believed an accelerant had been used, but no one had proven that even to this date.
Moore put out the fire and continued to search for Sabrina. He continued to scour the area, which had a gravel, circle drive passing through it. Moore followed this drive, coming upon two 6 to 7 foot tall piles of gravel and larger rock. Between those he found a pink shirt fitting the description of the one Sabrina had been wearing. It was covered in blood.
Shortly thereafter, due north/northwest of the pink shirt, at 8:21 p.m., Sabrina's body was located in an area of weeds and brush, between the rockpiles to the south and treeline to the north. Sakowicz said that judging by the appearance of the weeds surrounding the area where her body was found, it appeared as if someone had dragged the body to the location.
Sakowicz said the body was nude but for her socks. There was blood coming from her nose which had partly dried; there was also blood in her hair and pooled in her left ear, and smudges of blood on her left hip and on her socks.
The autopsy, Sakowicz said, showed that Sabrina had died of asphyxiation due to suffocation, which was manual - whoever had done it had closed off her airway to her nose and mouth and had applied pressure to her neck. The autopsy also showed that it appeared that Sabrina had been sexually assaulted. Sakowicz then read briefly from a report on the DNA that was collected from Sabrina's body as well as the blood evidence on her clothing.
A sex assault kit also collected that evidence. At that point, Sakowicz said, the investigation began as to who might've done this to Sabrina, focusing essentially on ruling out as opposed to going after any one person in particular. They started with the men who were known to have been at the house on Whittle that day: Tim Eads, Joshua Kollack, Josh Harmon, and Glen Ramey. Mouth swabs were taken of the four, and interviews were conducted.
During one of Ramey's two interviews (both of which were videotaped and played for the jury in the Effingham fitness trial in September), it was pointed out that there was blood on his Carhartt coveralls as well as the sleeve of a shirt he was wearing. In the video, Ramey was shown shucking the workboots he was wearing as well as the coveralls and handing them to the ISP agent interviewing him. Sakowicz testified that DNA was obtained from these, and it matched Sabrina's.
That finalized Sakowicz' testimony for the state; Lane asked a brief question about the items of evidence and whether or not that was all the items the state had collected (full disclosure: There was a LOT of coughing from the west side of the courtroom, and it was VERY difficult to hear some of what the attorneys were saying, as they didn't seem inclined to use the microphones.
The testimony then concluded...and Dunn asked Lane if the defendant would like to make a statement in allocution (on his own behalf in an effort to lessen the severity of any sentence the judge might be about to impose). Ramey did, and Dunn explained that Ramey was no under oath, however, he needed to be truthful as to what he said, nevertheless.
Ramey began by stating that "You'uns already got a statement from me," however, whatever else he said a sentence or two beyond that, it's hopeful that at least the court reporter got it, because Ramey is very difficult to understand (frankly, he talks like he has a mouthful of mush) and the coughing was continuing in earnest from the west side of the courtroom. He did, however, begin to speak up a bit after those couple of sentences, and said "On the night Sabrina died, I was there."
He continued to rather haltingly explain that he'd "been told to come to the location" where Sabrina's body was.
"I was there," he said. "When they found her, she was alive."
He continued with "If I could, I wish I could take it back but I can't," he said, not explaining what it was he wished he could "take back." "I'm sorry I can't. But, I was told to be there. Jerry Nicholas told me to meet him there and I did." He spoke a few more unintelligible words, then concluded with "I know it was wrong. I sorry for it." he paused a moment, then told Dunn, "That's it."
Effectively, if we're understanding him correctly (and we admit it; it was hard to understand him), he was saying that "someone else," the person he named, Jerry Nicholas, "did it." Whether he was saying that Nicholas had raped Sabrina, or whether he was saying Nicholas had been the one to murder Sabrina, is unknown at this time. But of course, those who were paying attention to the fitness trial know that Ramey had already voiced excuses as to how his DNA was found on Sabrina's body - by "someone" taking saliva from one of his tobacco-chaw spit bottles and placing it on Sabrina - so apparently he'd had a while to concoct his excuse and the allocution was just a follow-through on that.
The next phase was quite heartbreaking: Victim Impact Statements.
These were read, in brief, by Victim Impact Coordinator Tara Jenner of Brad Vaughn's office, as opposed to having the family and friends who had written them: Margie Vaughn, Nancy Vaughn Stauffenberg, Sabrina's biodad Glenn and his wife Irene Stauffenberg, her brother Glenn Stauffenberg Jr., Susan Vaughn, Kenneth Schanda, a former court-appointed guardian.
Each of them expressed how much they missed Sabrina, and how her smile lit up their lives. Schanda said that Sabrina "loved Disney princess movies; she loved Elsa from 'Frozen,' her favorite song was 'Jesus Loves Me.'" All of the statements were admitted into evidence.
Prosecutor Brad Vaughn had a bit of a stumble when it was his turn to speak in favor of a sentence of 60 years, the maximum punishment for the charge to which Ramey had entered a plea. When he began his opening, he said that it was a murder case. He rectified the mistake, but the statement echoed in the courtroom...because someone caused the death of Sabrina (a homicide), and the murder charge against Ramey had been dismissed in exchange for an amended plea, that of the aforementioned Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault of a Child under the age of 13.
"In his plea," Vaughn said of Ramey, "he admitted to the factual allegations of having sexual relations with a person under the age of 13." Vaughn paused. "Obviously she was much younger than 13.
"The range of sentencing is deemed, in a Class X felony, more severe in punishment and range from 6 to 60 years. There are reasons from minimum to maximum - 6 could be for improper touching of private parts, as an example. But the autopsy report, and the DNA evidence, take this case to a different direction. And the maximum is justified."
Vaughn spoke of the sadness that everyone experienced at Sabrina's death, and how he experienced sadness, but not because he knew her, but because he didn't know her, and only came to know her through the investigation. Vaughn had a plexi frame filled with photos of Sabrina, most of them obviously when she was a little older than toddler age.
"She was eight years old," Vaughn said. "This isn't improper touching of someone age 13. "This is a brutal sexual assault of an 8-year-old. The autopsy report describes her injuries noted in the post-mortem examination, and those will show why he should get the maximum of 60 years.
"Those of us who have come to know what happened carry a burden as well; officers, employees, staff are victims, in a much-reduced manner than the family. We came to know Sabrina by looking at her pictures. I can't bear to look at pictures of her after she died. She was a child. Her joy, her expectations of being alive are all gone. The impact statements bore that out. They don't speak to retribution (toward Ramey)...they speak to who she was and how it hurts that she won't be allowed to live her life.
"In 40-plus year of practicing law, I've never seen a better case for the maximum with the law. He says he's sorry and I believe him, but I don't believe it helps in this case of violent sexual assault. Sixty years in prison is the most important remedy we have. Mr. Ramey has to go to prison under the law; this is not probationable. But what he's done is so terrible. He's 55. A 60-year sentence will effectively leave him there for natural life. We don't make this request lightly. Prisons are terrible places. But Mr. Ramey's shown through this that he's too dangerous.
"Sixty years is what we ask."
Lane, in his rebuttal, pointed out that Ramey didn't enter a plea to murder, and assented that Ramey admitted to the sex assault. But Lane wanted to focus on Ramey's "intellectual disability," which the law allows as a mitigating situation when considering sentencing. Lane reiterated information learned at trial in September, wherein Ramey was assessed by psychiatrists at an IQ of 55 to 60, "very low." Lane also pointed out that Ramey's criminal history had nothing to do with sex offenses, but were focused on alcohol and thefts/burglaries.
Ramey boys Stetson, left, and Garrett, seated, smile for Disclosure’s correspondent.
(It's important to note that there have been sex offenses against children reported about Ramey - his own sons. However, because those weren't taken seriously by Massac County authorities many years ago, they were "investigated" by DCFS, and dismissed because the boys were too young - and one of them non-verbal, which is reported to be the kind of victims Ramey likes - and they went nowhere, despite serious anal injuries the older boy sustained in the incidents. Once again...Illinois' court systems believe that it "didn't happen" if an agency said it didn't, which is why Sabrina is dead.)
"We understand he must be sentenced to the Department of Corrections," Lane said. "But he's stood up today and asks the court to see remorse. He said he was involved, and 'I was there.' I believe it's of importance when someone stands up and says I'm sorry and was remorseful."
Letters Glenn Ramey mailed from the Richland County Jail to his sons are shown here; the first letter caused grief for the older boy.
Vaughn rebutted this by pointing out that Ramey had deliberately answered questions under psychological exam incorrectly, and was trying to appear "more disabled" than he was. He had also indicated he couldn't read and write when he indeed could.
"He's not a prize-winning author but he knows how to survive and he knows what's right and wrong," Vaughn said. "He minimized his culpability. He asked for a lawyer upon questioning. He knew what he was doing. He knows what he's doing here. He knows right from wrong. There's physical evidence of a crim he pled to, as a sexual assault case, it was violent in the worst way. And that justifies 60 years."
Judge Dunn went through all the aggravating and mitigating circumstances under Illinois law, being very thorough as is his usual way, and likely doing so so as to forestall any problems that may occur later to lead to an appeal. Most importantly, he went through Ramey's extensive criminal history in many downstate counties, including Pope, Johnson, Saline and Williamson, and the fact that he'd already done some stints in IDOC over some of it.
Toward the end of reading the litany of crimes, Dunn began hinting that 60 years was the right sentence, speaking to the financial impact to the state of incarceration, amounting to almost $24,ooo annually, which he noted that he must consider.
He brought up that eight months ago, both sides began talking about a plea agreement.
"Maybe they don't want to put the family through the trial, maybe there were concerns about evidence and reasonable doubt. There's a compromise, though, and I consider it.
"This is a case that cries out for the maximum. Sabrina should have only worried about what she was going to have for Thanksgiving dinner and Disney princesses, and the only monster she should be aware of in her life would be an animated one on a cartoon," Dunn said. "She was sexually assaulted, so her last moments, her last breaths, she had to experience Glen Ramey. Someone took a lot more than her innocence, a lot more than 60 years. The maximum is totally appropriate. If this is not the case, I don't know what would be."
Dunn did the math from the bench, stating that Ramey would get 481 days credit for time served, which amounted to 1.318 years. Ramey, he said, was 54 years and 10 months old. At 85 percent of a 60-year sentence (Ramey must serve 85 percent, as all sex offenders must), it would be 51 years of the 60. Deducting the time served, Ramey will spend 49 and two-thirds years in IDOC, and would be 104 and a half years of age when the sentence would be completed.
"That's not inappropriate at all," Dunn said. "Someone with his mental history - and don't get me wrong, I'm sorry for his life with a long history of alcohol and no treatment - but for his safety, his care, and the safety of the community, his incarceration until 104 and a half years of age is appropriate."
Pointing out that there has been no fines or restitution ordered, Dunn ordered the sheriff to transport Ramey to the nearest IDOC inproccessing facility as soon as was feasible.
Ramey had already requested to get to see his girlfriend, Misty Coseboon, before leaving for IDOC. That request was granted.
At the end of the hearing, which lasted until just before noon, Dunn advised Ramey as to his rights to appeal, telling him it must be in writing, and that he would have an attorney appointed for it if he so chose to appeal. He has 30 days to appeal, and Lane, Dunn said, would remain his attorney for the next 30.
He was taken out at 11:53 a.m., with media allowed to leave before the rest of those in the courtroom, to retrieve their cameras, and get the shots of hopefully the last perp walk across the street to the jail.
Should Ramey opt to appeal the sentence and it is vacated, the state has the right to pursue the charges that were dismissed...which includes the murder that no one now is charged with.
Someone killed Sabrina...and only God really knows who.
Little Sabrina Stauffenberg, in her last couple of years, finally landed in a loving home...only to have even that taken away from her the day before Thanksgiving 2016.