Orlando Ramirez convicted in Dalton bar killing

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

DALTON, Ga. From the stand, he awaited the tough questions, the 21-year-old defendant with a seventh-grade education, the one wearing too-big dress slacks, the one facing life in prison.

Bert Poston, district attorney for the Conasauga Judicial Circuit, stood up and approached the defendant. For 30 minutes, Poston had listened to Orlando Ramirez provide the jury with his account of the night of March 23, the night he shot one security guard dead and wounded another.

Ramirez told the jury how he felt threatened. How a rival gang controlled Las Delicias Bar at 511 E. Morris St. How some people brutally beat his brother at the bar weeks earlier. How he didn't even want to be there -- it was his friend's idea.

Ramirez testified that he tried to walk through the bar's open door that night when Daniel Maldonado-Flores grabbed him tightly, yelled at him, cursed at him. Ramirez said Maldonado-Flores never identified himself as a security guard and outweighed him by 80 pounds. Ramirez said he was scared.

He said the security guard charged at him, and that's when he shot him twice. He said another mysterious man -- Bruno Rodriguez -- charged at him next, so he shot him twice as well, killing Rodriguez.

Then it was Poston's turn to question Ramirez in Whitfield County Superior Court on Friday morning.

"You've had nine months to think about this," he said to Ramirez.

"No sir," Ramirez said, answering before Poston finished talking. "Well, I've thought about it -- yes sir. I think about this every day."

"Nine months you've been able to think about this."

"I've thought about what happened--" Ramirez started to answer.

"And this is the best you can come up with?"

Poston walked back toward his seat.

"I don't have any other questions," he said.

The cross-examination lasted only five minutes. Poston didn't want to keep Ramirez for a long time. He felt the case was obvious.

"I knew he was going to lie," Poston said later. "I'm not up there to get information from him. I'm up there to get him to admit what I need him to admit. ... I know he's a liar."

Friday afternoon, the jury agreed. After deliberating for only 18 minutes, they convicted Ramirez on seven counts, including the murder of Rodriguez and the attempted murder of Maldonado-Flores. Ramirez will return to court Jan. 30 for a sentencing hearing. Poston said the case is not eligible for the death penalty.

Public Defender Chris Matthews disagreed with the verdict.

"We're disappointed," he said. "We're probably going to be filing an appeal."

During his closing argument, Matthews repeated the main argument he made at the beginning of the trial. While security footage shows Ramirez shooting both security guards, it does not show an exchange outside the bar that led to the violence.

Matthews told the jury that his client felt threatened and had a right to kill both men in self-defense.

But Poston refuted this statement. He pointed out that Maldonado-Flores never moved toward Ramirez until Ramirez pulled a gun. At that point, Poston said, the security guard had to fight for his life.

Witnesses who were outside the bar that night have backed Maldonado-Flores' version of events during this week's trial.

And Rodriguez? Poston said he only charged at Ramirez after his fellow security guard had been shot. Poston quoted scripture to the jury, John 15:13 -- Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.

"That's what Bruno did: Bruno laid down his life," Poston said. "He was one of us. I would submit he was the best of us. We are diminished as a community without him."

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

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