Trial begins in fatal Dalton, GA bar shooting

Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen
Orlando Ramirez listens during his trial Tuesday.
Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen Orlando Ramirez listens during his trial Tuesday.
photo Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen Orlando Ramirez listens during his trial Tuesday.

DALTON, Ga. -- One minute before he began firing, Orlando Ramirez peeled open his wallet and showed the bar bouncer a picture.

Daniel Maldonado-Flores didn't understand what he was seeing. It was a skeleton, wrapped in a monk's dress.

"Es la Muerte," Ramirez said.

It's Death.

The picture, Ramirez's defense attorney said at the beginning of his murder trial Tuesday morning, represents his client's belief system. Denounced by Vatican officials, the image of Santa Muerte is popular on some Mexican streets and in the country's prisons.

The "folk saint," as Public Defender Chris Matthews described her, is popular among those who struggle, who live in poverty, surrounded by crime. Some patrons smoke marijuana in front of the image and dedicate tequila to her.

Maldonado-Flores was working security at the door of Las Delicias Bar when Ramirez tried to get inside on March 23. Maldonado-Flores swung his arm in front of the open door. He'd been working in his cousin's bar for eight years and was trained to ask youthful-looking people for identification.

Ramirez flashed his wallet. Maldonado-Flores studied the small picture and chuckled.

"Man I'm serious," he said. "I need your ID."

Ramirez handed him a piece of paper issued by the state. Maldonado-Flores saw a birth date of July 1993. Ramirez was four months shy of his 21st birthday. Maldonado-Flores told him he was not allowed inside.

Then, prosecutors say, Ramirez backed up, grabbed a .380 handgun and pointed it at the security guard.

Maldonado-Flores charged forward and reached for the gun. He pumped his legs, struggling with Ramirez. He pushed him back into the parking lot, heard a gunshot and kept driving forward, not realizing a bullet had blown through his left leg.

He fell to his knees and heard more gunshots, feeling the bullets slice through his upper back, near his shoulders, millimeters away from his lungs on one side and a vital artery on the other. He scrambled back to his feet and tried to run away, but collapsed behind a truck.

On Tuesday, Maldonado-Flores told the jury that he then heard about three or four more gunshots. But Ramirez wasn't behind him. He was safe.

Curious, he crawled around the truck, to a place where he could see the rest of the parking lot.

He watched Ramirez walk out of the lot. On the ground, he saw 28-year-old Bruno Rodriguez, the security guard who worked alongside him.

Other witnesses say Rodriguez charged at Ramirez after Ramirez shot Maldonado-Flores. Paramedics say they arrived to find Rodriguez dead from a gunshot just above his ear.

On Tuesday, Ramirez sat next to Matthews in Whitfield County Superior Court, facing charges of murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and possession of a gun in the commission of a crime.

The dead and wounded guards' families filled two rows behind the prosecution tables. Behind Ramirez sat two women.

Security camera footage captured most of the scene that night, so Matthews did not try to dispute most of Maldonado-Flores' version of events Tuesday. But, Matthews pointed out to the jury, there is a key 30-second window that the cameras did not catch.

When Ramirez approached the bar's entrance, a door blocked the camera from recording what transpired. The viewer only sees the reaction -- Maldonado-Flores pushing Ramirez back before Ramirez begins to fire his gun.

Matthews told the jury that, in those 30 seconds, Maldonado-Flores intimidated Ramirez. The security guard had just kicked a drunk man out of the bar for hitting on uninterested women.

"Were you anticipating any trouble?" Matthews asked Maldonado-Flores.

"No."

"You weren't tense?"

"No."

"You weren't nervous?"

"No."

Then the defense attorney brought up Santa Muerte again. That skeleton picture: Wasn't that weird? Wasn't that threatening?

"I used to deal with drunk people for a long time," Maldonado-Flores said. "I thought he was drunk."

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6476.

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