MROGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia County Prosecutor Gabe Mucciola said the January 2024 murder of Learfield/Mountaineer Sports Properties worker Jacob Lough stands alone.
“This murder is likely one of the most brutal murders that Monongalia County has ever seen, certainly one of the most brutal committed by a stranger to the victim,” Mucciola said.
She talked with MetroNews affiliate WAJR Radio back on Friday after a 12-member jury had decided that Jonathan Ramirez, 24, of Watauga, Texas, would serve the rest of his life in a West Virginia prison. The jury found against granting Ramirez mercy. The day before the panel convicted him on all counts including first degree murder. The jury took less than an hour total time deciding both verdicts.
Mucciola said the jury recognized the seriousness of the crime.
“I’m really grateful to the jury for appreciating the malice of the defendant’s unforgettable actions and recognizing that this defendant is a true danger to this society that cannot be afforded and will not be afforded the opportunity for parole,” she said.
Putting the case together
Ramirez came to West Virginia in January 2024 to meet with a girl he had made contact with on the internet. The get-together in Wayne County didn’t work out so he made his way to Morgantown. He checked into the Hampton Inn located in the Suncrest area. He began checking for open hotel rooms to burglarize and then made his way into the Suncrest community where video showed him casing residences for possible crimes. He was able to make his way into Lough’s residence where he attacked him in his sleep, stabbing him more than 200 times.
Mucciola said the early hours of the investigation were key.
“This homicide was committed in the middle of the night by a stranger and there were no leads in the beginning of this case,” Mucciola said.
It would have stayed that way, she said, had it not been for the work by Morgantown police detectives and the efforts by WVU Police.
Ramirez stole Lough’s car and drove it to WVU’s downtown campus. He walked around the campus in clothes he stole from Lough and a backpack. WVU police officers arrested him on campus less than 24 hours after the murder.
“This murderer was identified and captured in record timing,” Mucciola said. “This community should be grateful and I am grateful for all of the efforts they took to ensure that he was apprehended.”
The motive
Mucciola told the jury during her closing argument at the end of the trial’s first phase that Ramirez in a sick way wanted to be like Michael Myers, the nightmare of the Halloween franchise.
“He performed the part of the Boogie Man that he so idolized. He acted out his own sick fantasy,” she told the jury. “But you know the truth and so did he–the Boogie Man isn’t real, but ladies and gentlemen of the jury this defendant is,” Mucciola said.
She told them Jacob Lough was real human with real people that loved him with real friends and real family.
“He didn’t deserve this,” Mucciola told the jury. “He (Ramirez) wanted to show the world the Boogie Man was real and now it’s your turn to show him that Mon County justice is real.”
The jury convicted Ramirez in a half hour.
Strong support for Jacob Lough
When Lough’s friend, along with both his parents, individually took the stand during the mercy phase of the trial, they were openly supported by more than two dozen friends and family members, many of whom traveled across multiple states in order to support the family. This included people who grew up with Lough back in Northern Virginia as well as work colleagues who traveled all the way from Wisconsin. Knowing the positive impact Lough had on several people while living in Monongalia County, Mucciola said she is appreciative that his family and the people close to him were able to receive swift justice.
“You can tell from the testimony today and just the sheer number of people in the courtroom that loved Jacob,” said Mucciola. “He was a light to this community and to his coworkers, and he was raised by kind and beautiful parents and surrounded by love.”
There’s been no sentencing date set for Ramirez.
WAJR Reporter Joe Nelson contributed to this story.