KYLE RAMIREZ - 16 yo (2008) - Tracy CA

The teenager said he was beaten for not feeding the dog. He was kept chained, he said. He was punched, cut with a knife, burned. His wounds were doused with bleach and salt. He was denied food and forced to sleep in the fireplace.The horror the boy endured while held captive in a Tracy home until his dramatic Dec. 1, 2008 escape is detailed in grand jury transcripts. The sudden appearance of the ragged 16-year-old at a nearby Tracy gym -- wearing only gray boxer shorts and a chain around his ankle, begging for help -- launched a case that shocked the nation and shook this San Joaquin Valley town to its core.Four people were arrested, accused of abusing the boy -- Michael Schumacher, 36, and his wife Kelly Lau, 32; Caren Ramirez, 45, Kyle's caretaker; and Anthony Waiters, 31, a neighbor. The charges against them included torture, false imprisonment, corporal injury to a child and aggravated mayhem. Torture charges against Lau, Schumacher and Ramirez were dropped as part of a plea deal accepted in superior court Friday. Jury selection for Waiters' trial begins Thursday.The boy, known in court records only as Kyle R,, testified behind closed doors to the grand jury -- that indicted the suspects in April 2009 -- that he and Ramirez began living at the Schumacher's home on Tennis Lane in September 2007. Ramirez had been introduced to the Tracy family by a mutual friend. Kyle told the court Kelly Lau didn't want him living with them anymore and his abuse began around the 2007 holidays. He said Lau would hit him for forgetting to change her baby's diaper or not feeding the dog. He said the first time she hit him it was with her hands."Then she started, graduated to, like the belts, and then -- and then she started like, hitting me with like this mallet thing that (Ramirez) used also, and a hammer, and then it started getting worse from there." he told the grand jury.He said that after a while they discussed killing him."I remember they said they would try to, like, cut me up and everything and throw me in the Delta, " he told the grand juryKyle testified that on Thanksgiving 2008 Waiters doused him with lighter fluid when Ramirez told Waiters he had cut holes in the couch. Kyle said he used the couch, that had been given to the Schumachers by Waiters, to hide food and food wrappers.He said Waiters was there for Thanksgiving dinner with the Schumachers and Ramirez, when Waiters poured lighter fluid all over his body, which gave him gasoline burns. "So were they all there when he poured lighter fluid on you?" Prosecutor Angela Hayes asked the boy."Yeah, they were all there," Kyle said. "What were they saying" Hayes asked."They would just watch, and sometimes they would just laugh," he said. After the adults got tired of the fumes, he said they washed him down outside. Hayes later asked Kyle when he started wearing the gray boxer shorts."When all the other, just shirts and everything else, it was all bloodied up, and they threw it away," Kyle answered. Dr. Angela Rosas, a pediatrician specializing in child abuse and neglect cases examined Kyle two days after he escaped. She testified to the grand jury that he had scars from burns on his back, and unhealed cuts and burns on his arms, legs and torso. There were also scars on his wrists and ankles from being bound with zip ties and a heavy chain.Kyle testified that Ramirez once held him down while Waiters sliced into his forearm with a knife. They treated his wound with bleach, then put butter and salt on it before dressing it. He said he never saw a doctor.He told the grand jury he was kept padlocked to a chain connected to various items, including the fireplace. He got a key from one of the children, but couldn't find the nerve to leave. He hid the key in a slit for the drawstring of his boxer shorts. On Dec. 1, 2008, the day of his escape, he said he was caught by Lau after he unlocked the chains. He said Ramirez called Waiters and Schumacher, who weren't at the house."I heard Tony saying that he was going to cut my fingers off and everything, and then when Mike got on the phone ... he was just laughing, and he's saying, 'I'm going to (mess) you up when I get home' and everything," Kyle testified. "So I then knew that it was basically that I had to hurry up and leave or it was going to be the end from there."Kyle was re-chained to a table. While watching Lau through a mirror, he again freed himself. He said the chains made so much noise, they attracted Lau's attention."By then I knew I had to leave, so I just yanked the chain off, and I saw her coming, and she was trying to beg me not to leave, but by that time I was already trying to -- I opened up the back door and I jumped on the trampoline to jump over the wall," he testified.

On the brink of trial for the torture of a 16-year-old boy, three of the four suspects in a Tracy torture case have accepted plea deals.




In San Joaquin County Superior Court this morning, Caren Ramirez, 45, the guardian of the battered boy -- known in court documents as Kyle R. -- accepted a deal that will give her 34 years in prison. Kelly Lau, 32, will receive 33 years and her husband, Michael Schumacher, 36, accepted a deal that will give him 30 years. The Tennis Lane neighbor of Lau and Schumacher, Anthony Waiters, 31, who faces the same charges, was not part of the deal.The four were charged with multiple offenses, including torture and aggravated mayhem for allegedly abusing the boy -- charges that could have brought a sentence of life in prison.The boy was 16 when he appeared Dec. 1, 2008 -- emaciated, bloody and scarred -- at a Tracy gym and begged for help. He wore only boxer shorts and a chain around his ankle. He told police he had escaped from Lau and Schumacher's Tennis Lane home where he had been held captive for more than a year.

A jury has found Anthony Waiters guilty on nine felony counts, including torture, child abuse and false imprisonment, in the case of a Tracy 16-year-old boy allegedly tortured by his caretakers in 2009.

The jury announced the verdict just after 4 p.m. Tuesday in a San Joaquin County courtroom, after deliberating since late Thursday. Waiters was also found guilty of aggravated mayhem with a bat, slicing an arm, coporal injury hit with a bat, punch with a boxing glove, criminal threats and assault with caustic chemicals.Waiters was the only defendant of four to go on trial. The other three people arrested for allegedly torturing the boy known as Kyle previously entered guilty pleas and will receive prison sentences of at least 30 years. Waiters was a next-door neighbor. During the trial, Waiters' attorney, in closing statements, pointed out the lack of direct evidence against Waiters, while also marking the inconsistencies in some of Kyle's statements about what happened.Waiters will be sentenced on Jan. 18, 2011 at 9 a.m.

Calif. Man Found Guilty of Torturing Boy Held Captive for Year


Updated: Wednesday, 24 Nov 2010, 5:45 AM PST
Published : Wednesday, 24 Nov 2010, 5:45 AM PST(NewsCore) - A California man was found guilty Tuesday of nine counts stemming from the torture and abuse of a 16-year-old boy held captive for more than a year, the Mercury News reported Tuesday. After four days of deliberation, a San Joaquin County jury found Anthony Waiters, 31, of Tracy, guilty of corporal injury to a child, false imprisonment, infliction of great bodily injury and torture, among other counts. Kyle Ramirez told the court during the trial that the abuse began almost immediately when he and his caregiver Caren Ramirez moved into the Tennis Lane home owned by husband and wife Michael Schumacher and Kelly Lau. Waiters was a neighbor. Kyle described a life of household chores, non-stop abuse by all four tormentors and deplorable living conditions in which he was forced to sleep chained to a table near the fireplace. The teen's story became known when he escaped in December 2008 and stumbled into a Tracy Health club in underwear with a chain locked around his ankle, KCRA reported. He feared for his life because Schumacher and Waiters had spoken of “chopping me up and dumping me in the Delta,” Kyle said during the trial. Kyle said when his guardian caught him unchained looking for food, she cut his back with a meat
cleaver. Schumacher, Lau, and Caren Ramirez accepted plea deals and were set to be sentenced on Dec. 6 to 30 years or more in jail. Waiters, a former youth football coach, was the only one went to court, and will be sentenced on Jan. 18.

http://www.myfoxla.com/dpps/news/calif-man-found-guilty-of-torturing-boy-held-captive-for-year-dpgonc-20101124-fc_10775114

The fate of a man convicted of torturing a teenage boy held captive in a neighbor's Northern California home for more than a year has been delayed.
San Joaquin County prosecutors said Tuesday's scheduled sentencing for Anthony Waiters was postponed as his defense attorney seeks a new trial.
Waiters was found guilty in November of aggravated mayhem, torture,
kidnapping and false imprisonment of then-16-year-old Kyle Ramirez.
Ramirez testified that Waiters cut him, lit his pants on fire and beat him unconscious between 2007 and 2008.
The emaciated teen escaped in December 2008 wearing only boxer shorts and a shackle across his ankle.
Waiters' neighbors and the teen's legal guardian each have been
sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for their roles in the
torturing. His new sentencing date is Feb. 28.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/01/18/state/n115455S10.DTL#ixzz1BQtgU2bz

STOCKTON
-- A Tracy man, who will spend a minimum of 18 years and eight months in
state prison for torturing a teenage boy, told the court Monday he
didn't do it.Anthony Waiters, 31, who was convicted in November,
said he was dumbfounded when a jury found him guilty. He maintained his
innocence before San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Terrence Van
Oss pronounced his sentence Monday.He told the court he has love and respect for "Mr. Kyle" and his family. "I'm
not a malevolent person," Waiters said. A jury found Waiters guilty of
torture, two counts of aggravated mayhem and six other charges for
physically abusing Kyle Ramirez.Kyle was 16 when he escaped from
the Tennis Lane home of Waiter's neighbors on Dec. 1, 2008. He ran to a
nearby gym begging for help. Emaciated, bloody and scarred, he wore
nothing but boxer shorts and a chain around his ankle. Van Oss,
who said that this case is the most bizarre he has ever seen, sentenced
Waiters to three life terms to be served concurrently for the torture
and aggravated mayhem charges. Waiters received 11 years, eight months
for the remaining charges, time which must be served before the life
sentences kick in. Also, Waiters must serve seven years of the life
sentences before he may be considered for parole.Waiters is the
last of four people arrested in the case to be sentenced. In December,
his neighbors Kelly Lau and Michael Schumacher, and Kyle's
former-guardian CarenRamirez, were each sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for their part in the abuse.Waiters
said Monday that he couldn't understand how the jury reached his
verdict , but he respected it. He said the case has been featured as the
top story in Spanish-language media and was the subject of a Japanese
anime short."Around the world I'm known as this nasty man, but the people who matter .... Know my character," Waiters said.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17502884?nclick_check=1