Man found guilty of 2019 attack on student

A Clarke County jury on Friday convicted a home invader who attacked a University of Georgia student on her walk home from a bar in 2019 and forced his way into her off-campus apartment, according to court documents.

Jose Antonio Ramirez, 33, was found guilty of simple battery, battery, theft by taking, false imprisonment and first-degree burglary.

Jurors did not convict Ramirez on three of the more serious charges for which he was tried: criminal attempt to commit a felony, aggravated assault and robbery by force. Court records show they found him guilty of lesser charges for those counts, resulting in the three theft and battery-related convictions.

Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens, who presided over the trial, will hand down Ramirez’s sentence at an undetermined date, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.

The attack happened before dawn Oct. 26, 2019. Police said Ramirez, who was homeless, followed a 23-year-old woman to her apartment complex in the 300 block of Oconee Street.

The victim testified that her attacker, whom she later identified as Ramirez, ambushed her from behind and forced his way into her apartment when she opened her front door. Athens-Clarke police said he pushed her onto a couch, and the woman testified that she thought Ramirez’s intent was to rape her because of the way he touched her, the newspaper reported.

The woman told jurors she was “1,000% certain” Ramirez was the man who broke into her apartment, according to the Banner-Herald.

Prosecutors also presented surveillance footage that showed a man matching Ramirez’s description following the victim the night of the incident. Ramirez took the woman’s cellphone and fled when a roommate came out of her bedroom and interrupted the attack.