Non-custodial mom testifies at custodial dad's murder trial (Dallas, Texas)

It's not surprising that the father of the accused killer daddy makes excuses for him and blames everything on the Evil Step. It's a convenient out for his little boy, and plays into the typical demonization of stepmothers.

And I sincerely doubt that custodial father AARON RAMSEY "suddenly" decided to lock this little boy in his room and starve him to death, and that there was no history of this father being controlling and/or abusive before he got involved with the step.  The very fact that he pursued and retained custody suggests that he was more than likely controlling and abusive:

* A 2005 study by the New England Research Institutes found that, even in states with laws that tilt against custody for an abusive parent, 40% of adjudicated wife-beaters got joint custody of children. 

* The American Judges Association says that about 70% of wife-abusers are able to convince a court that the mother is unfit for sole custody.

* Nationwide, some 58,000 children a year are put back into the unsupervised care of alleged abusers after a divorce.

Notice that there is no discussion here as to how or why this "alleged" killer daddy was able to get custody or who gave it to him. Unfortunately, this is typical. For the most part, fathers only become custodial because of an act of the state; they don't give birth, so they don't become "primary" parents by nature or default. The fact that there were court personnel who totally f*cked up has been swept under the rug as usual.

My heart goes out to Judy Williams and all the mothers who have lost their kids to these violent sicko dads.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/headlines/20130417-mother-in-starvation-trial-testifies-she-was-told-son-was-thriving-in-dallas-but-he-was-dead.ece

Mother in starvation trial testifies she was told son was thriving in Dallas, but he was dead

By CHRISTINA ROSALES
Staff Writer
Published: 17 April 2013 11:20 PM

During the months that her son’s remains lay in an Ellis County creek bed, Judy Williams, living in New Mexico, received emails from her ex-husband and his wife telling her the 10-year-old boy was thriving and had made the honor roll at school in Dallas.

In March 2012, she learned her son, Johnathan Ramsey, had been dead seven months.

“I went into a panic,” Williams said.

Testimony in the trial of the boy’s father, Aaron Ramsey, 35, began Tuesday morning in a Dallas County courtroom. Ramsey is charged with injury to a child and could face up to life in prison if convicted.

Police say Aaron Ramsey and his wife, Elizabeth Ramsey, locked Johnathan in a filthy bedroom in their northeast Dallas home for months, feeding him only bread and water. Medical experts say the boy died in August 2011; his remains weren’t found until the following April.

Ramsey confessed to wrapping the body in a sleeping bag and dumping it in a wooded area in Ennis, the father’s hometown, police say.

Ramsey’s father, Edward Ramsey, testified Tuesday that his grandson had lived in Ennis most of his life and that he saw his grandson regularly. Aaron Ramsey regularly sent cellphone pictures of the happy boy and arranged weekly phone calls with Johnathan’s mother and two siblings in New Mexico.

Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey married in 2010, according to testimony. They and Johnathan moved to Dallas in January 2011.

After the move, Williams testified, “everything changed” and communication became less frequent. She tried to arrange visits from New Mexico but was turned away in emails from the Ramseys, she testified.

Through Williams, Johnathan’s maternal grandmother tried to get an address to send presents to the boy for his 11th birthday and Christmas. In emailed responses, the Ramseys told Williams to stop emailing and said they’d send post offfice box information for the gifts later.

“And don’t contact Aaron’s family,” one email from Elizabeth Ramsey’s account said, according to evidence presented by lead prosecutor Eren Price. “They don’t know where we moved to. Nor will they.”

Meanwhile, in Ennis, grandfather Edward Ramsey grew impatient with excuses the couple offered for why he couldn’t see his grandson. He hadn’t seen the boy since January 2011.

“Our contact was limited or awkward,” he testified about his phone calls with Johnathan. It seemed “Elizabeth was over his shoulder … like his words were being controlled.”

In March 2012, Edward Ramsey drove to Plano to begin searching for the boy, first stopping to see his son’s father-in-law at the shoe repair shop he owns. He asked if the man knew where Johnathan had been for the last year.

“He said Johnathan had moved to New Mexico and that he might have died,” Edward Ramsey testified. “He showed no emotion.”

He called Dallas police in mid-March, and they conducted a welfare check at the Ramseys’ home on Clearwater Drive. Officers questioned Elizabeth and Aaron Ramsey separately but never entered the home. Their stories didn’t match, officers testified.

At one point during the visit, Elizabeth Ramsey told officers she was 37 weeks pregnant and was having contractions. After she was taken by Dallas Fire-Rescue to the hospital, officials learned she was not pregnant.

Police opened a child abuse investigation and searched the couple’s cluttered, filthy home for evidence. They found more than a dozen cats and four dogs living there, healthy and well-fed, though living in their own waste.

And they searched the bedroom in which Johnathan was kept for months until he died, according to police testimony. The room’s wooden door had a bolt and receiver and could only be opened from outside the bedroom. The door was brought into the courtroom for evidence Tuesday.

“This is the door behind which Johnathan Ramsey died?” Price asked Detective Daniel Greene. He replied: “Yes it is.”

Elizabeth Ramsey will face life in prison if convicted when she is tried separately.

Testimony in Aaron Ramsey’s trial before Judge Don Adams is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.