A 30-year-old man pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to 16 years and four months in prison for a hit-and-run collision that injured a family and killed a 5-year-old boy in Garden Grove.
Ceferino Ascencion Ramos, who has been in jail since July 8, 2024, pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, failing to stop at a hit and run with injury or death and driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol content above the legal limit of .08%.
Ramos also admitted sentencing enhancements for fleeing a vehicular manslaughter, causing great bodily injury of coma or paralysis and inflicting great bodily injury.
The collision killed 5-year-old Jacob Ramirez, who was rushed to a hospital in critical condition and was later declared brain dead.
The boy’s father, Angel Ramirez, suffered bleeding in the brain from a fractured skull and was in a coma following the crash, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. He recently underwent surgery, prosecutors said.
The father and his wife, Angela Hernandez-Mejia, were riding electric bikes with their three children just after 7 p.m. in Garden Grove on Haster Street near Twintree Lane when they were struck by the defendant’s vehicle, prosecutors said.
The father was pulling a trailer with Jacob and his now 8-year-old sister inside. His wife was pulling a trailer with their then-7-month-old daughter in it.
The mother and baby suffered minor injuries.
Ramos had a blood-alcohol level of .22, nearly three times the legal limit.