ANDERSON -- Ryan Ramirez will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility or parole for the 2018 murder of a toddler and the neglect of a three-year-old boy.
A Madison County jury in Anderson recommended the sentence in February after finding Ramirez guilty, and a judge agreed to it this week during an unusual hearing.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ramirez and is attorney did not appear in court, Instead, they took part in the sentencing over a video/audio hookup from the Madison County Jail.
Little Paisley Hudson was just one-month shy of her second birthday when she died. Paisley was the daughter of Ramirez's girlfriend.
Hudson died from a blow to the head, and liver injuries, according to the Madison County Coroner. The little boy suffered serious injuries, but survived.
26-year-old Kayla Hudson, the girlfriend and mother of the children, pleaded guilty to a pair of neglect charges last year and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Hudson told investigators that she had gone to work in the evening of July 27, 2018 and left her children in the care of Ramirez, who is 30.
Hudson said she got off work, came home and put the children to bed and then went to a store to buy "creams" to cover bruises on her son's face.
Hudson told investigators that after her daughter had been "sleeping" for nearly seven hours, she became worried and went back to check on her. That's when she found the toddler face down and unresponsive. Paisley was pronounced dead at St. Vincent Anderson Hospital.
Meanwhile, the three-year-old son was taken to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis after doctors at the Anderson hospital noted he was covered in bruises. According to court documents, doctors at Riley found the little boy to be malnourished with numerous cuts, bruises. fractures and cigarette burns on his ankles.
Investigators interviewed Ramirez's two children, ages eight and ten, and were told that their father often hit Paisley.
