Former Marine Raphael Ramey Sentenced to Life

On March 14 at the Vista Courthouse, Charles Evan Williams Sr., the father of a murder victim, told the man who killed his son, “After the verdict was read, I slept well.”

The murderer, Raphael Ramey, was recorded telling police that the day he stabbed Charles Williams Jr. to death was the first night he had slept well in weeks.

A jury declared Ramey guilty of murder and torture on February 10.

On March 14, a judge heard from seven friends and family members of the 23-year-old victim, who was found in the bloodied office of his Oceanside car business in August of 2009. Friends and family members wept and spoke fondly of “Chuckie,” and they wondered aloud how such a brutal murder could have happened over a used-car sale.

Before she sentenced Ramey to life in prison without possibility of parole, superior-court judge Joan Weber remarked that as an active-duty Marine at the time of the murder, Ramey’s “job was to protect and defend.”

Twenty-year-old Xavier Akeem Adams, also accused of participating in the murder, is now on trial at the Vista Courthouse.

Pictured: Billboard for Oceanside car business owned by murder victim Charles Williams