Yale man gets 8-year prison term for burglary and attack

  (Stillwater, Okla.) — A Yale man with an extensive criminal record has been given two concurrent eight-year prison terms for punching the face of a female relative whose jaw and eye were fractured on June 24, 2021, and burglarizing a neighbor’s house on Aug. 6, 2021.

    Joseph Ray Ramage, 39, who pleaded guilty to both charges on Oct. 13, was sentenced by District Judge Phillip Corley in accordance with an agreement with the prosecution regarding his penalty.

    Ramage had been in custody on $70,000 total bail since his arrest in August of 2021 after both charges were filed when a couple living near Ramage obtained emergency protective orders against him, court records show.

    In April of 2022, the judge ordered that Ramage be committed to the Department of Mental Health to receive treatment. Last week, the judge found that Ramage was now mentally competent to face the criminal charges, court records show.

    According to Payne County court records and the state Department of Corrections, Ramage was 20 when he was sent to the Regimented Inmate Discipline (RID) prison boot camp program for attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon in 2001 and eluding a Yale police officer in 2003. He was incarcerated for about six months until being released to four and one-half years of probation in 2004.

   In 2016, Ramage was convicted of two separate incidents of felony domestic violence for which he was initially given four years of probation that was revoked in 2017 to one year in jail, which was again revoked in 2018 to 90 days in jail, and again revoked in 2019 to 180 days in jail.

   In 2017, Ramage was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm for which he was originally given a one-year jail term followed by nine years of probation, which was revoked in 2018 to 90 days in jail, again revoked in 2019 to 180 days in jail, and in 2020 again revoked to one year in jail with credit for time served.