PAROLE DENIED

A former Buffalo, N.Y., man serving 15 years in prison in the 1989 fatal shooting of his girlfriend in Bridgeport was denied parole on Tuesday.

Joseph Santiago, 47, who was captured after 22 years on the run, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in 2011.

His girlfriend, Aida Ramos, the mother of three children, had been shot in the head in 1989 and languished in the hospital, unable to move or breathe without assistance, until her death in 2004.

During a hearing Tuesday at Robinson Correctional Center, Bridgeport Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney C. Robert Satti Jr. and members of the Ramos family objected to Santiago being released. The Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Santiago’s petition.

Santiago had initially been charged with assault following the 1989 shooting of Ramos, but had skipped his court date. Some years later, Santiago was picked up by Pennsylvania authorities, but they mistakenly released him before Connecticut law enforcement officials could get him, and Santiago was on the lam again.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, police received a report May 7, 1989, that Ramos had been brought to Bridgeport Hospital suffering from a gunshot wound to the base of her skull.

Witnesses told police they were in a Pembroke Street apartment with Ramos and her boyfriend, Santiago, when they heard the sound of a gunshot, the affidavit states. They said Santiago then came running into the room where the witnesses were and said he had just killed Ramos.

Santiago and a witness dropped Ramos off at the hospital, the affidavit states. On the way back, Santiago stopped at a gas station to wash his hands in some gasoline and he warned the witness not to talk about what had happened to Ramos, it states.