CHEYENNE — A 47-year-old man said he “kind of went out of my mind” in the early morning hours Tuesday when he allegedly slashed 52 tires on 22 vehicles parked in front of their homes at a low-income apartment complex.
Through a Spanish interpreter, German Ramirez Jimenez blurted out that he lost his mind and that “I am on medication” during his Thursday afternoon first appearance in Laramie County Circuit Court before the judge shut him down.
“I don’t want you to tell me anything about the offense,” Judge Timothy Forwood interjected before Ramirez Jimenez could elaborate more on what happened in the parking lot of the Lexington Hills Apartments in south Cheyenne leading up to 4 a.m. Tuesday.
Except for that outburst, Ramirez Jimenez, who is from the Dominican Republic, simply answered “yes” and “no” to whether he understood the charge against him and had any questions.
That charge, felony property destruction, could land him a prison term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to $10,000, or both. In the meantime, Forwood set his bond at $3,000 cash only and scheduled a Sept. 11 preliminary hearing.
Overall, it’s estimated the 52 tires Ramirez Jimenez is accused of slashing and the one windshield he allegedly smashed would take nearly $7,500 to replace, Cheyenne Police Sgt. Zack Johnson wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.
Taking Food Out Of Kids’ Mouths
That Ramirez Jimenez allegedly targeted his neighbors is something Giovanni Trevino said he’s still trying to wrap his head around.
Ramirez Jimenez lives below him and, until this incident, hasn’t caused any problems in the neighborhood that he’s aware of.
Three of the tires on his car were slashed, causing about $800 worth of damage, Trevino said, adding that’s money neither he nor his neighbors can afford to spend.
“Like everyone around here, I’m trying to save up to pay a certain bill at a time, and then every time I get close, something happens,” said Trevino, who works cutting hair at Royal Blendz Barbershop in south Cheyenne.
“I have a son. I have a 2-year-old son, and you know, when you take that money from me it’s like taking food out of his mouth,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday. “This is a low income (complex). There’s a reason why people live there, and it’s because they have low income.”
Trevino said he’s been told the city’s Crime Victim Compensation fund may help those who can’t afford to replace their tires, but that doesn’t help the immediate bind the incident puts people in.
“Yeah, people have to, like, get to work and get to their jobs. They can’t afford not to,” he said. “I’m close enough, I can walk here (to the barbershop).”
Caught On Video
Trevino first learned his tires had been slashed when a neighbor pounded on his door at about 4 a.m. right before police responded to the complex.
Part of the vandalism was caught on video by the neighbor’s outdoor surveillance camera, which was also released by the Cheyenne Police Department on Wednesday as they put out a call to identify the vandal.
Hours later, Ramirez Jimenez walked into the police station and turned himself in, according to Johnson’s affidavit.
The 13-second video clip shows a man casually walking up to a Chevy Suburban and plunging a knife into its back left tire. He then moves on to a pickup next to the Suburban and does the same.
Trevino said when his neighbor showed him the video, he immediately thought it was another of his neighbors, pointing out that the man in the video is wearing a T-shirt from the place where Ramirez Jimenez works.
“I told the cop, I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m not even waking up to be mad right now because I’m freaking fresh out of bed,” Trevino said. “But now that I seen him doing it (on the video), it made me more mad.”
What really gets to Trevino is that Ramirez Jimenez in the video seems very nonchalant, casually — almost leisurely — walking from car to car and stabbing their tires.
“Yeah, he didn’t look mad or anything,” he said. “It was just like he was taking out the trash or something, like he was bored, you know what I mean?”
One thing Trevino said he wanted to make crystal clear: “I’m not mad at his wife, at all. His wife is always respectful. She’s nice as hell. She talks about praying for us and all that, and I hear she’s worried that everybody’s mad at her.
“I’m not mad at her, and I don’t know that anybody is,” he added. “Like, I feel bad for her. If anything, I just want the family to know we’re not mad at them.”
The same may not hold true for Ramirez Jimenez, however. If he were to return to the apartment complex, “he may get socked,” Trevino said.
“I know a few neighbors want to find him, and it’s because he had no reaction,” he added. “It’s like he didn’t care.”
Someone Else Must’ve Done Some
By the time CPD arrived at the complex a little after 4 a.m. Tuesday, Ramirez Jimenez had left, but there were plenty of disabled cars in the lot in front of multiple buildings, according to Johnson’s affidavit.
Trevino added that, from what he observed, every vehicle had multiple tires popped except for two — the suspect’s and a Ford Mustang he doesn’t know who owns.
“Many of the vehicles had more than one vandalized tire,” the affidavit says, adding the final tally was 52 tires on 22 vehicles. Also, a 2004 Subaru with a shattered windshield.
After turning himself in, Ramirez Jimenez allegedly admitted to investigators that he slashed some tires, but not all of them, the affidavit says. Through a Spanish interpreter, he theorized someone else must’ve slashed the others.
“Ramirez Jimenez admitted that he stabbed several car tires in the parking lot of the apartment complex he lives in,” Johnson’s affidavit says. “It was relayed to me that Ramirez Jimenez had different reasons for why he caused the vandalisms.”
One was that others had vandalized his car or possibly broken into his house. Another is that he thought people were working to keep him from getting a job.
He also “verified that he stabbed several tires, but stated he thought he only vandalized six cars, not 22,” the affidavit says. “Ramirez Jimenez speculated that people other than him committed the other vandalisms.”
Johnson notes in the affidavit that the surveillance video only shows the single suspect who resembles Ramirez Jimenez.
For Trevino, he said he and his neighbors are deflated, because they’re all “just a lot of hardworking people” who can’t afford large, unplanned expenses like having to replace multiple tires.
At Royal Blendz, Trevino seems to get little sympathy from the other barbers as they tease each other like longtime frat buddies.
“Yeah, I’m a victim, too,” said Israel Campos while running a clipper up the side of someone’s head. “Because I had to hear him talk about it all day.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
