Miami County man gets maximum sentence for crash that killed local woman

Judge says 18-month prison term is not justice, but was the maximum she could order
Miami County Courthouse

Miami County Courthouse

TROY — A Piqua man convicted of vehicular homicide in a December crash on U.S. 36 in which a Greenville woman died was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison.

Eric Ramos Jr., 28, was driving while under a license suspension when he hit head-on a vehicle driven by Sheryl Huffman, 51, Judge Stacy Wall said in Miami County Common Pleas Court.

A report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which investigated the two-vehicle collision near Piqua, said his vehicle had a strong smell of burnt marijuana just after the crash.

Ramos and two children who were in the backseat of his car without seat belts or other safety devices also were injured in the crash.

Ramos, who went left of center in the crash, was indicted on charges of felony child endangering and a misdemeanor vehicular homicide before pleading to a felony count of vehicular homicide in exchange for dismissal of the other charges.

Eric Ramos Jr. of Piqua was convicted of vehicular homicide in a December 2022 crash on U.S. 36 in which a Greenville woman died. He was sentenced Thursday, June 15, 2023, to 18 months in prison.

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“I really want to apologize. I am very sorry,” Ramos said Thursday.

Huffman’s daughter called the collision a “senseless tragedy.” She said her mother, a bus driver for the Greenville schools, was a “kind and forgiving woman.”

“He should live daily with the acknowledgement that he killed an innocent woman,” the daughter said.

Wall said Ramos had prior convictions for driving without a license, driving while under suspension and driving while under the influence. “Your history establishes it was a matter of time,” she said.

“There is no justice in an 18-month prison term,” Wall said, adding the 18 months was the maximum she could order for the fourth-degree felony charge.

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