Flores-Ramirez gets life in prison for Ledgeview beating Cesar Flores-Ramirez watches jury selection at the beginning of his homicide trial in February (file photo by H. Marc Larson). The convicted murderer will be eligible for parole after 45 years By Jessica La Plante News-Chronicle Calling the fatal beating of a 22-year-old Hispanic immigrant "the most heinous, vicious crime that can be committed," a Brown County judge sentenced a Green Bay man to life in prison Friday. Cesar Flores-Ramirez, one of two men involved in the Oct. 7 death of Hector Hugo Martinez-Razo, will be required to serve 45 years in state prison before he is eligible for parole. "You took a person's life and you took it for the shallowest of reasons," Brown County Circuit Court Judge Mark Warpinski told the defendant at the hearing. Flores-Ramirez, 22, was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide on Feb. 28. In a criminal complaint, prosecutors accused Flores-Ramirez and codefendant Sergio Hernandez-Segura of attacking the victim after a dispute about missing compact discs. Offering the victim a ride home from a Green Bay tavern on Oct. 7, the two men stopped along a rural roadside in Ledgeview and repeatedly struck the victim with a baseball bat. The suspects were caught by police after their car got stuck in a ditch as they were trying to flee the scene. Testimony at the trial revealed both defendants were intoxicated at the time. Convinced that Flores-Ramirez played the lead role in the attack, prosecutors allowed Hernandez-Segura to plead no contest in April to the lesser charge of reckless homicide. He will be sentenced on June 27. In asking the judge to set the defendant's initial period of confinement as high as 50 years, Deputy District Attorney John Luetscher reminded the court Flores-Ramirez was the main party responsible for Martinez-Razo's death. Luetscher asked the judge to send a message to the public through the sentencing process. "When you are convicted of this crime, you'll serve something like a life sentence, because human life is (sacred)," he said. To illustrate the severity of the crime, Luetscher referenced testimony given by police and medical witnesses during the defendant's three-day trial. He said the evidence showed the victim was ambushed by Flores-Ramirez, and had no opportunity to fight back. "I don't think he ever knew what was coming," Luetscher said. After disabling the victim with an initial blow, the defendant continued to strike the victim's skull until it shattered, Luetscher said. Luetscher asked the judge to consider the defendant's lack of remorse. "The defendant has not accepted responsibility for his involvement," Luetscher said. Defense attorney Joseph Norby disagreed. He said the defendant's denials of guilt were directed at prosecutors' claims that his client delivered the fatal blows. Never did the defendant deny being at the crime scene, he said. But Warpinski didn't accept the theory the defendant's only remorse should be his inaction as an innocent bystander. "If you can't acknowledge your wrongdoing, that tells you something about your possibility of reoffending," Warpinski said. Warpinski acknowledged the long list of mitigating factors read by the defense. He said he would give the defendant credit for his clean criminal record before the murder conviction, as well as his family oriented behavior and solid work history. Speaking on the issue of remorse, Warpinski said, "I have to believe that you felt some loss here, because that's the one thing that makes sense for someone who sends money back to his family (in Mexico)." Family members of the victim said no penalty could console their loss. Flores-Ramirez "didn't only take my cousin's life, he took a piece of all of us," said Green Bay resident Hugo Vera. Vera described his cousin as a caring family man who worked hard to support his family in Mexico. Despite being apart from his mother for more than three years, Martinez-Razo called her every Tuesday and sent his ill mother regular checks for medical bills.