By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Tulsa man with a long criminal record has been arrested on a homicide charge in connection with the heroin-related death of his girlfriend in her Perkins apartment.
James Josiah Ramos, 30, was transported from Tulsa on Sept. 1 to the Payne County Jail where he remains held without bail, court records show.
Ramos has been scheduled for arraignment on a second-degree murder charge today, which is the one-year anniversary of the death of 29-year-old Jamie Bear.
Ramos and Noah Reimer Montague, 25, of Tulsa, were originally charged with murder in Tulsa County, but the case was dropped there due to a state Supreme Court ruling, since the victim was of Iowa tribal descent and Tulsa County is in Cherokee and Creek tribal lands, court records show.
Montague, who is on drug-related probation in Tulsa County, has been charged, but not yet arrested, with felony murder in the first-degree by distributing heroin from which the victim died on Sept. 10, 2019, court records show.
“On Sept. 10, 2019, at 9:03 am officers from the Perkins Police Department, Chief Bob Ernst, Deputy Chief Steve Hensley and Officer Jason Thompson were assigned to a welfare check,” at the apartment where the victim’s body was found, according to an affidavit by Attorney General’s Investigator Steven Johnson.
“When officers arrived, they knocked on the front door, but got no response, but found the front door unlocked,” through which the chief and deputy chief entered, the affidavit said.
“The apartment was then searched and the body of Jamie Bear was found in an upstairs north side bedroom. Officer Thompson found syringes in the upstairs south side bedroom,” the affidavit alleged.
An hour and 40 minutes later, Ramos arrived at the apartment, the affidavit alleged. Ramos talked to Perkins Police Investigator Charles Danker and Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Lt. Kevin Garrett about an hour later, the affidavit said.
“Ramos stated that on Sept. 9, 2019, he and Bear were in Tulsa and met with defendant Montague and bought one-half gram of heroin from Montague,” the affidavit alleged.
Ramos said that he and the victim returned to Perkins and each took some of the heroin, the affidavit alleged. Ramos said “the heroin was different and hit him harder,” the affidavit alleged.
Ramos said the next morning he woke up at about 8 am while the victim was still asleep, the affidavit alleged. Ramos said he told her he was taking her car to Drug Court in Tulsa, the affidavit alleged.
“Ramos drove around for 10 minutes before deciding to go back to the apartment and check on Bear,” whom he found with eyes half-open and groaning, the affidavit alleged.
Ramos called a friend, who told him to give the victim Narcan, but he did not have any, so the friend told him to give her milk to make her vomit, but there was none in the apartment, the affidavit alleged.
“Ramos said he was going to call an ambulance, but thought that if Bear was groaning she was all right,” the affidavit alleged.
“Under Oklahoma law, it is considered unlawful to sell controlled dangerous drugs to another individual, which later results in the death of another person, the actions of defendant Montague,” the affidavit alleged.
“It is also unlawful and illegal to provide controlled dangerous drugs to another person, which results in their death, defendant Ramos,” the affidavit alleged.
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