Detective: Father of slain Modesto boy said shooting was authorized gang hit

The father of a slain boy told a detective that he knows who authorized a 2009 Norteño gang hit that inadvertently killed his son and another man in Modesto’s La Loma neighborhood, according to the detective.

Modesto police Detective Phil Owen testified Tuesday that Epifanio Ramirez Sr. said he was the intended target in the shooting that killed his 10-year-old son, Epifanio Ramirez Jr., and 29-year-old Jason Cyphers.

The father told the detective that Norteño gang members were upset that he had left the gang and was selling methamphetamine on his own out of his home on Santa Barbara Avenue. Epifanio Ramirez Sr. also told the detective it was Joe Luis Ramirez who gave the “green light” to kill him, Owen said.

But Owen could not recall how the slain boy’s father had learned this information about who authorized the shooting. “I do not know,” Owen testified.

Joe Ramirez, Aaron Aguilera and Randy Sifuentez are on trial charged with murder in the shooting deaths of the boy and Cyphers. The defendant is not related to the slain boy or his father.

Cyphers was in the home’s open garage with the boy’s father and three other people when shots rang out July 28, 2009. The boy was inside the home when a stray bullet struck him.

The detective questioned Joe Ramirez about the allegations of a gang-authorized hit. He vehemently denied the allegations, telling Owen he didn’t understand how a father who had just lost his son could make up such lies, Owen said.

Joe Ramirez’s attorney asked the detective why Owen told Joe Ramirez he also was upset at Epifanio Ramirez Sr. Owen explained on the witness stand that the boy’s father had wasted a lot of time in the investigation by not cooperating with police and telling other witnesses not to tell authorities what they knew.

“Yeah, I was very upset with him,” Owen said about the boy’s father. “I felt we could’ve resolved this case a lot sooner had he come forward.”

Epifanio Ramirez Sr. has testified that he changed his mind about speaking to police after months in federal custody on gun charges. He said his family warned him that if he didn’t cooperate with the investigation, he would eventually return to Modesto and continue his life of criminal activity. His federal prison sentence was reduced in exchange for testifying against the three accused men.

Testimony in the lengthy murder trial was expected to continue Wednesday in Stanislaus Superior Court.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Detective: Father of slain Modesto boy said shooting was authorized gang hit."