Syracuse, NY — An Onondaga County Court Judge said Thursday he had no choice under the state’s new bail reform law but to release from jail a driver accused of an Onondaga Lake Parkway fatal hit-and-run who authorities say tried to hide his tracks. Michael Ziemba, 49, is eligible for release on his own recognizance under the bail reform law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020, Judge Thomas J. Miller said. “Whether I agree with it or not,” the judge ruled, Ziemba is required to be released from jail on Jan. 1. Read Full Article

Syracuse, NY — It may be one of the more unusual murder scenes in recent Central New York history: someone covered up the stabbing and beating death of Jacob Giarrusso by pouring his grandmother’s home-cooked chili across the crime scene. Giarrusso, 25, of Salina, was found dead three days later, stuffed in his own car trunk, after being bludgeoned and stabbed seven times, a knife stolen from his grandmother’s kitchen breaking off in his back, police said. His buddy and co-worker, Jacob Stanton, 26, is facing trial this week in Giarrusso’s November 2017 murder. Giarrusso’s body was found in his abandoned car at the Brookwood on the Green apartment complex, off Morgan Road. Read Full Article

Attorneys for a South New Berlin man serving a 25-year sentence for the 2012 murder of his wife argued last week in Chenango County Court that his conviction should be thrown out. Ganesh “Remy” Ramsaran, now 44, is in custody at Great Meadows Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Washington County. He exhausted his ability to directly appeal his case two years ago, according to Michael Ferrarese, acting Chenango County District Attorney. Ramsaran’s lawyers, Melissa K. Swartz of Greene & Brenneck and J. David Hammond of CDH Law, both in Syracuse, filed a motion in February to set aside his 2014 conviction on the basis that Ramsaran received “ineffective assistance of counsel.” Read Full Article

NORWICH – Convicted murderer Ganesh R. Ramsaran appeared in Chenango County Court Friday with his lawyers urging the judge to grant them a hearing to discuss the work of defense counsel during the 2014 murder trial. They hope the case can get a new trial. Ramsaran was convicted of murdering his wife and was sentenced to 25 years to life after a jury convicted him on Sept. 23, 2014. Monday the defense asked for the court to hear concerns about the trial and attorneys pointed to several issues in the case they thought deserved further explanation in court. They offered a scathing assessment of Ramsaran’s trial attorney, Gil Garcia, calling his defense incompetent and possibly exploitative. Read Full Article