Man to spend decades in prison for child sex assault, child porn case

Published on December 02, 2022

GREELEY, Colo. (Weld County D.A.) -  A Greeley man was sentenced to nearly 80 years behind bars this week after a jury convicted him of several charges related to child sex assault and child pornography.

In August, a Weld County jury convicted Joe Ramos, 49, of the following seven charges:

• SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF A CHILD (F5)

• SEXUAL ASSAULT ON A CHILD: POSITION OF TRUST-VICTIM LESS THAN 15 AND AS PART OF A PATTERN OF ABUSE (F3) X 5 

• CRIMINAL ATTEMPT TO COMMIT SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN (F4)

Police began investigating Ramos in July of 2019, after an anonymous person reported to the Greeley Police Department that the defendant had child pornography on his cell phone.

During the investigation, a female juvenile also disclosed that Ramos had been sexually assaulting her for nearly eight years.

At the sentencing hearing Wednesday, the victim told the judge that “no child should ever have to be this strong.”

The defendant was facing a range of 18 to 146 years to life in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Before Weld District Court Judge Allison Esser handed down a sentence, Deputy District Attorney Patrick Roche argued that she sentence Ramos to the maximum amount of prison time.

“This is a case where a child’s innocence was taken by the hands of this egregious man,” DDA Roche said. “Nothing will ever give this victim her childhood back, nor will anything ever erase the horrific memories this child now has to live with. But the court can send this monster to prison for the maximum amount of time to ensure he never harms another child in this community.” 

Ramos was sentenced to 76 years to life in DOC.