MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Sentencing is scheduled for Friday afternoon in Monongalia County Circuit Court in a robbery and murder that took place two years ago in Morgantown.
Jonathan Ramirez, 24, of Watuga, Texas, killed Learfield/Mountaineer Sports Properties worker Jacob Lough.
A 12-member jury found Ramirez guilty of first degree murder and decided he should be granted no mercy in his sentence to life in prison in a trial that occurred last August.
The sentencing is scheduled for 3 p.m. today.
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 didn’t work out so he made his way to Morgantown. He checked in 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 sleeping, stabbing him more than 200 times.
“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,” Monongalia County Prosecutor Gabe Mucciola told WAJR Radio following last year’s trial.