I-295 Drive-By Murder Defendant Gets More Than 35 Years in Prison

            WASHINGTON – Oscar Ramos, 34, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 39.5 years in prison for first degree murder while armed and assault with intent to kill while armed for the May 28, 2015 shooting that killed one many and injured another, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Chief Pamela A. Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department.

            A jury found Ramos guilty in April of killing 50-year old Pedro Melendez Alvarado and wounding 56-year old Miguel A. Rodriguez Carabantes.  The two men, both of Alexandria, Virginia, were driving to work together when Ramos shot them from his car on I-295.  Superior Court Judge Maribeth Raffinan ordered Ramos to serve 360 months in prison for the first-degree murder conviction and 114 months in prison for assault with intent to kill.

            According to the government’s evidence, Ramos, who is a member of MS-13, was one of three men in a car that was driving on I-295 NB, in Southwest, D.C., near exit 1, when the car he was in pulled alongside the victims’ car.  Two men in the defendant’s car then opened fire on Mr. Alvarado’s car, striking the victims, and then pulled away.

            The defendant was charged in 2021 after evidence was developed identifying him as having plotted to kill Mr. Alvarado.  The defendant and Mr. Alvarado are both from El Salvador.  The defendant believed Mr. Alvarado was somehow involved in the death of the defendant’s father, years earlier, in El Salvador.

            U.S. Attorney Graves and Chief Smith commended the work of those who investigated the case from MPD, the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the Department of Justice Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C. Field Office, the Prince George’s County (Md.) Police Department, the Montgomery County (Md.) Police Department, the Chelsea, Massachusetts Police Department, and the Anne Arundel County (Md.) Fire Department. Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Liebman and Jacqueline Yarbro who prosecuted the case at trial.