Man gets life in prison for shooting, killing man in SUV while they rode down Gwinnett Co. highway

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County jury convicted a man for shooting another man in the back of the head while they were traveling in an SUV.

On April 14, 2021, Jorge Alberto Ramirez, 35, and Pedro Lopez-Belloso, 23 were traveling down Jimmy Carter Boulevard.

Ramirez, who was in the back seat of the SUV armed with an AR-15 rifle, told police he felt nervous because Lopez-Belloso was also armed.

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He told police that he chambered a round in his rifle because of this “weird feeling” about the others in the SUV with him.

Soon the rifle fired, hitting Lopez-Belloso, who was in the front passenger seat, in the back of the head.

Ramirez told investigators that the rifle was sitting at his side when it accidentally fired.

However, according to evidence presented in court, Ramirez intended on shooting Lopez-Belloso, telling the driver of the SUV, “I don’t give a damn... There ain’t gonna be emotion of jealousy, envy, hatred...”

After the shooting, when Ramirez was questioned by Gwinnett County Police in the back of a patrol car, he was recorded saying he shot Lopez-Belloso because the “immigrant want(s) to envy, hate, and be jealous on an American citizen of the United States of America.”

He later said, “...Our oath is if you try our patriots, our patriots will respond with the almighty great accuracy and definition of a solution... It’s simple, bro. I don’t give a damn about no murders, I don’t give a damn about no kidnappings. I don’t give a damn about nothing.”

When Ramirez was questioned by prosecutors in March 2022 after he was charged by police, he said he had been asleep in the back of the SUV, which was propped up in the seat next to him, fell over and fired.

An analysis of the rifle by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined that the rifle could not have accidentally misfired and could only have been fired by a human pulling the trigger.

A jury found Ramirez guilty of three counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Ramirez was sentenced to life in prison plus five years.

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