Serving life in prison for the brutal slaying of his childhood best friend might not always be in the cards in the State of California for Nathan Ramazinni but, for the time being, the 42-year-old convicted killer will remain behind bars.
The Board of Parole Hearings on Tuesday denied Ramazzini’s first bid for parole, which was made possible after the California Legislature passed SB 394, which took lifetime prison sentences off the books for offenders who committed their crimes as juveniles.
Colusa County District Attorney Brenden Farrell said Ramazinni’s parole hearing lasted for more than four hours, with the Parole Board Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner focusing largely on the crime itself, Ramazzini’s life while incarcerated, and whether they felt he was sufficiently rehabilitated enough to re-enter society.
Ramazzini was convicted in 1998 of killing Erik Ingebretsen on July 15, 1997, when both boys were just 16-years-old. Another childhood friend, Leo Contreras, 18, pleaded guilty to being Ramazzini’s accomplice two days into his jury trial, and has since been released from prison.
Ramazzini, who was initially tried as an adult and sentenced to life without parole for first degree murder, lying in wait, and personal use of a deadly weapon, is now serving 25-years-to-life at High Desert State Prison.
For more than two decades, the motive behind the slaying remained a mystery until Ramazzini hinted at his resentencing hearing in 2018 that Ingebretsen had chosen a different path from gang life and thuggery that his childhood friends had drifted towards, and they feared Ingebretsen might turn them in.
The Colusa Police Department and Colusa County District Attorney’s office solved the murder quickly after Ingebretsen’s body was discovered in a wooded area near the river around 3 PM on July 17, the day after his parents reported him missing.
Ramazinni’s own father had already shown investigators the blood he discovered inside his Lincoln, which his son had borrowed the evening Ingebretsen was last seen getting into it after getting off work the evening of July 15, although the younger Ramazzini denied seeing his friend before his disappearance.
Ramazinni only confessed to being involved in the killing after Contrereas admitted during questioning they lured Ingebretsen to his death, although both pointed fingers as to the brutality of the crime.
According to court records, Ingebretsen suffered 17 different wounds, including blunt force trauma to the head from a baseball bat Ramazinni washed and put away in his closet. He also suffered multiple stab wounds from a kitchen knife eventually found in a dumpster, and a slash to the throat so deep it reached his spine.
It was only during his resentencing hearing five years ago in Colusa County Superior Court, after California passed SB 9, which granted juvenile offenders serving life without parole the opportunity to have their sentences reduced, that Ramazinni admitted on the stand, possibly unintentionally, that he was the mastermind behind the deed.
For years, Ingebretsen’s sister Devin Lombardi, who was just 13 when her brother was killed, has fought to keep Ramazzini from ever being released.
“Nathan’s parole denial is an amazing feeling, but I can’t exactly call it justice,” Lombardi said. “Justice would have been the original Life Without The Possibility of Parole plus one year sentence, so that we – my family and community- could be left alone from the trauma that resurfaces from these types of hearings. But, I can’t say it doesn’t feel damn good that the parole commissioners saw right through him from the onset, and took every opportunity to call him out on inconsistencies and lies in his stories and answers from throughout the years, and at today’s hearing, just as judges have done before them.”
Ramazzini will have to serve at least three more years before he can be considered again for release.
In recent years, the 42-year-old has largely stayed out of trouble, completed several rehabilitative programs, and earned two associate’s degrees, but that is not enough to keep Colusa County’s new District Attorney from being skeptical that Ramazzini should re-enter or could acclimate to normal society.
“I do not believe at this time he is rehabilitated,” Farrell said. “So long as he is not rehabilitated, I will seek to keep him in custody.”
Although subsequent legal developments making Ramazzini eligible for parole opened old wounds in the community, in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s parole hearing, a banner stretched across Market Street shared Lombardi’s sentiment.
“Colusa County Stands for Victims Rights,” the banner read.
“I’m always humbled by the support my family receives from our friends and community, and people who didn’t even know my brother – from near and far,” Lombardi said. “So for now, and for the next three years, I will relish this victory, knowing our streets will be safe from him.” ■