Edwin Ramos won't face death penalty Edwin Ramos: Suspect in slayings of S.F. man, 2 sons will face life at most

Edwin Ramos, charged with the shooting deaths of a father and his two sons last year, shows in court at the San Francisco Hall of Justice where is was announced that the DA, Kamala Harris, will seek a penalty of life in prison without parole on Thursday Sep. 10, 2009 in San Franicisco, Calif. Harris has always said she wouldn't seek capital punishment. less Edwin Ramos, charged with the shooting deaths of a father and his two sons last year, shows in court at the San Francisco Hall of Justice where is was announced that the DA, Kamala Harris, will seek a penalty ... more Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Edwin Ramos won't face death penalty 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris will not seek the death penalty for an alleged gang member accused of murdering a father and two of his sons, a prosecutor said Thursday.

The announcement in San Francisco Superior Court means that Edwin Ramos will at most serve life in prison without parole if convicted of the June 22, 2008, slayings of Tony Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16.

The decision is in keeping with Harris' campaign promise never to seek the death penalty. There had been speculation, however, that with Harris running for state attorney general next year, she might shift direction in an especially notorious crime.

Assistant District Attorney Harry Dorfman put an end to that speculation in court Thursday. "We will not seek the death penalty in this case," he told Judge Charles Haines.

Harris said outside court that her office will do everything it can to make sure Ramos "dies in prison for these horrific crimes."

She said her office had spent "many, many months" reviewing the case, but did not give a specific reason for her decision.

"We have thoroughly reviewed the facts and the law in this case," Harris said. "It was a complicated analysis that involved many issues, many facts and many laws."

Widow outraged

The decision angered members of the Bologna family.

Tony Bologna's widow, Danielle Bologna, "is outraged," said Marti McKee, a spokeswoman for the family. "She feels that the city of San Francisco has let her and her family down."

Danielle Bologna and other relatives have sued the city, saying that authorities should have turned over Ramos, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, to federal authorities for deportation when he was arrested on gang-related offenses as a juvenile.

"She feels that not only did she lose half her family, she lost her home because she was forced to move so she could protect the rest of her family," McKee said. "With this decision, it will just never end."

Shot in their car

Ramos, 22, believed to be a member of the MS-13 gang, was ordered in June to stand trial for the killings of the Bolognas, who were shot to death in the Excelsior district by someone in a passing car as they were driving home from a family outing.

Authorities believe Ramos mistook one of the Bologna sons for a rival while looking to retaliate for the shootings of two fellow MS-13 gang members earlier that day.

The lone survivor from the attack, Tony Bologna's 19-year-old son, testified during a 10-day preliminary hearing that he had seen Ramos open fire after the defendant pulled alongside his father's car at Congdon and Maynard streets and delivered a menacing stare.

Ramos' attorney, Marla Zamora, argued that her client had been driving the car carrying the gunman but that he had not fired the shots. She said Ramos was not a gang member and had identified the killer, a man whom authorities have been unable to locate.

High-profile call

For Harris, the case was the most significant death-penalty decision she had had to make since the April 2004 killing of police Officer Isaac Espinoza.

Ramos' previous criminal record was similar to the one compiled by Espinoza's killer, David Hill. Ramos had no adult record but had two gang-related offenses as a juvenile, one for an assault on a Muni passenger, the other the attempted robbery of a pregnant woman.

Hill also had only a juvenile gang-related record and, like Ramos, was 21 when he was accused of murder. Harris spared Hill the death penalty; a jury convicted him of second-degree murder in 2007, and he is serving a sentence of life without parole.

Harris announced her decision on Hill, however, within hours of his arrest, prompting criticism from police and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, among others. Thursday's announcement on Ramos, in contrast, came more than a year after he was arrested.

After the Hill furor, Harris followed the example of many other prosecutors and set up panels to potential death penalty cases.

In the Ramos case, prosecutors have alleged three special circumstances that could have made him eligible for lethal injection - that the Bologna killings were gang-motivated, that they were committed as a drive-by attack, and that the shooter committed multiple murders.

Harris' predecessor as district attorney, Terence Hallinan, also had a policy of not pursuing capital punishment. No one in San Francisco has been sentenced to death since 1991, when Clifford Bolden, now 53, was convicted of the 1986 robbery and slaying of Michael Pedersen. Bolden is still appealing his sentence.