Life term for getaway driver in cop’s death

The getaway driver in the killing of a San Antonio police officer who was gunned down as he chased a couple on a robbery spree through three counties was sentenced Monday to life in prison.

An Atascosa County jury was about to be selected Monday for the capital murder trial of Jenevieve Ramos, 33, who drove the car while her boyfriend, Shaun Puente, 37, fired a 9 mm Ruger semi-automatic pistol out of the back window of the Mitsubishi Lancer and killed a beloved police officer.

But Ramos decided to plead guilty to murder for her role in the 2013 slaying of Officer Robert Deckard and was sentenced to life in prison.

“I believe that if you shoot a police officer, you should receive the death penalty,” Police Chief William McManus said Monday afternoon.

Ramos was 28 when she and Puente, then 32, robbed as many as four small busi-

nesses in San Antonio at gunpoint during a two-week spree. Ramos was driving the getaway car when they became involved in a highway chase that began in San Antonio and ended in Atascosa County. Puente repeatedly fired a pistol out the back window of the car around midnight Dec. 8, 2013, hitting Deckard, 31, a seven-year veteran of the force.

Of three dozen rounds fired at the officer, one struck him in the forehead. Deckard lost control of his police cruiser, a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, and ran into a tree off Interstate 37. He was taken off life support and died 13 days later.

Last year, Puente was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after an Atascosa County jury found him guilty and deadlocked on whether to send him to death row.

McManus said he spoke to one of Deckard’s relatives Monday morning. He said the family was somewhat reconciled to the case’s outcome. They realized that Ramos likely would not have received a death sentence if convicted, and they did not want to endure another trial, McManus said.

“I think it brings closure as much as it can for the family, but there is a sense of injustice whenever anyone can escape the death penalty after killing a police officer,” he said. “They were OK with it because it brings them to a point of closure on this, and they didn’t have any expectation for the death penalty after the first trial.”

Deckard, married and the father of two, was on patrol on the South Side near downtown on a cold December night when he began chasing Ramos and Puente, suspected armed robbers who were dressed all in black and were wearing bulletproof vests.

The chase reached speeds of 115 mph as the vehicles snaked through South Bexar County, into Wilson County and finally to Atascosa. In dashcam video played at Puente’s trial, jurors heard the siren and screaming engine of Deckard’s SUV stop abruptly at the moment he crashed into the tree.

“Bobby Deckard was a good man and a great officer,” Atascosa County District Attorney Audrey Louis said Monday.

“The family had gone through four months of trial for the first defendant, and it was really painful and caused a lot of stress for them. I’m glad we could give them that closure.”

The San Antonio ExpressNews was unable to reach the Deckard family for comment.

Ramos is being held in Wilson County Jail until her transfer to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Ramos also pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison for shooting at a Poth police officer. Louis said the armed robberies were taken into consideration in negotiating the plea agreement, and she added that it was possible those cases would be dismissed in Bexar County.

The two life sentences will be served at the same time, and Ramos won’t be eligible for parole until after she serves 30 years.