Father convicted in slaying of baby son for profit

MANASSAS, Va. - Joaquin Shadow Rams plotted to kill his infant son from nearly the time he was born, finally snuffing out his life at age 15 months when the opportunity presented itself, a Virginia judge ruled Thursday.

Rams was convicted of capital murder in the 2012 death of Prince McLeod Rams and will be sentenced to life in prison.

Judge Randy Bellows’ ruling caps a nearly fiveyear legal saga in which Rams maintained he was unfairly accused and that his son died after suffering a fever-induced seizure. Witnesses gave conflicting medical testimony about the possibility that Prince died from natural causes.

But in a 62-page ruling that he read aloud from the bench for more than two hours, Bellows methodically dismissed the suggestion that Prince died a natural death. Bellows concluded that Rams planned to kill his son ever since he took out life insurance policies totaling more than $500,000 in September 2011, when Prince was only 2 months old.

In the summer of 2012, a civil judge granted unsupervised visits to Rams over the objection of his mother, Hera McLeod, who feared for the boy’s safety. Then, in September 2012, Rams learned that his son was suffering fever-induced seizures.

The seizures “gave the defendant his alibi, his way to justify how Prince came to die in his care,” Bellows said.

On October 20, 2012, in just his fourth unsupervised visit with his son, Rams called 911 and said his son had a seizure and stopped breathing. Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, and he was declared dead the next day.

Prince’s death fits a pattern of misfortune that has befallen those close to Rams. His ex-girlfriend, Shawn Mason, was shot and killed in 2003. Rams’ mother, Alma Collins, died in 2008 in what authorities initially ruled a suicide.