PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — A Peoria County judge watched Jose Ramirez say that he stabbed his parents in a videotaped confession played on the first day of the Princeville man’s murder trial.
The (Peoria) Journal-Star reports that the 22-year-old man told investigators, “I stabbed them twice” in the video played Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. Ramirez faces first-degree murder charges in a bench trial before Judge Katherine Gorman in the deaths of his adoptive parents.
Susan Brill de Ramirez was a Bradley University professor and Antonio Ramirez Barron worked in the school’s technology department.
Prosecutors believe Ramirez stabbed his parents multiple times and beat them with a baseball bat early on Oct. 26, 2018. They claim he was aided by 21-year-old Matthew J. Roberts of Princeville. Roberts is scheduled to enter a plea deal this month.