‘Soulless, remorseless’ teen strangles mom to death over ‘D’ grade

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A 15-year-old boy from Florida, United States is currently in juvenile custody for strangling his mother to death and hiding her body after they fought over a “D” grade he received at school.

Gregory Ramos, who confessed to killing his mother, Gail Cleavenger, was ordered by a juvenile court judge in Volusia County on Sunday, Nov. 4 to remain in juvenile custody for 21 days or until a further court order is issued, as reported by WKMG-TV yesterday, Nov. 5. It still remains unclear whether the suspect will be charged with murder as an adult.

His two accomplices, Dylan Ceglarek and Brian Porras, both 17, were both charged with acting as accessories to a first-degree murder, the report said. They were ordered to be on supervised home detention, but prosecutors were questioning their sentence in relation to the gravity of the crime committed.

Ramos, who was studying criminal justice and crime scene investigation at University High School in Orange City and a youth volunteer at the city’s police department, called up the police on Friday, Nov. 2. He claimed that his house was burglarized and his mother was missing. However, authorities saw through his lies — they noted the crime scene was suspicious and that the scratches on his face was consistent with wounds inflicted in self-defense.

After Ceglarek and Porras confessed to helping Ramos stage the burglary scene and burying his mother’s body, the police accosted the indifferent Ramos. Not long after, he finally confessed to killing his mother, saying he did so as a “preemptive strike.” Apparently, he believed his mother will kill him, despite an absence of evidence of a possible abusive relationship between them.

Volusia county sheriff Mike Chitwood stated Ramos tried to strangle his mother to death on Friday after they argued regarding the “D” grade he received in one of his subjects. Thinking his mother was already dead, he went out to fetch a wheelbarrow.

When he returned and saw his mother was still breathing, he spent 30 minutes strangling her once more, the report stated. He succeeded this time. He then loaded his mother’s body to her car and called Ceglarek and Porras.

Together, the three buried Cleavenger’s body at a church fire pit where they usually drink and do drugs. Ramos, who wanted to become a homicide detective, used his crime scene analysis knowledge to make sure the fire pit, which was chosen because the ground in the area was “malleable,” looked undisturbed. Later, the trio staged the burglary scene, hiding the supposedly “stolen” electronics.

Chitwood regarded Ramos as a “soulless individual” and one of the “top three sociopaths” he has encountered.

“To watch how cold and callous and calculating he was, I think was probably the most shocking thing for all of us,” Chitwood said in the report. “No sign of remorse whatsoever.”

Sergeant A.J. Pagliari who interviewed Ramos said the 15-year-old “wasn’t very emotional” about his confession. He described the suspect as “very cold, calculated and very proud of what he did.”

The sergeant added, “He said ‘I did a really good job staging everything.'” Kate Matriano/JB

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