Sailor loses bid for lower bail in murder case

A sailor who is accused of second-degree murder in the wrong-way freeway death of a Point Loma woman lost his bid on Oct. 27 for a lower bail and remains in jail without bail.

The new attorney for Eric Deangelo Ramos Cortez, 26, asked for either bond at $25,000 or release on his own recognizance, but San Diego Superior Court Judge Robert Amador denied it.

Deputy District Attorney Hailey Williams argued there was a public safety risk and urged no bail stemming from the Dec. 20, 2021, incident in which Sarah Lombardi, 54, was killed at 11:30 p.m. when she was struck head-on on Interstate 8.

Ramos was driving a Subaru Outback and had a .18 blood/alcohol level at the time when he crashed into her vehicle near the Sunset Cliffs Boulevard exit. She was returning home from Kansas City Barbecue.

A trial date is set for Feb. 21, 2024, and attorney Jay Monico has stepped in to replace Onell Soto. Ramos won a rare reverse of a guilty plea to gross vehicular manslaughter because there was a sentence marked out in the plea form that no one saw.

Ramos had faced a sentence of 11 years and eight months in prison with the guilty plea, but with a second-degree murder charge reinstated, he faces a term of 15 years to life in prison if convicted. If a jury convicts him of murder, he could spend decades in prison. Ramos recently married his girlfriend while in jail. He has pleaded not guilty.