Press Room > Press Release

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – District Attorney Kamala D. Harris announced today that Tari Ramirez, age 35 and CTN 1853047 was convicted by a jury of the high-profile domestic violence murder of Claire Joyce Tempongko in 2000.

The guilty verdict followed a two-week jury trial before Superior Court Judge Robert L. Dondero in Department 23 of San Francisco Superior Court. The jury, after deliberating, three days found defendant Ramirez guilty of stabbing his former girlfriend to death.

"Justice was served today for the family of Ms. Tempongko who lost a loved one to this senseless act of domestic violence," said DA Harris. "Domestic violence is an insidious crime and I will continue to prosecute the cowards who commit these heinous crimes."

The conviction is the result of an investigation by SFPD Homicide Inspectors Maureen D' Amico and Michael Johnson and SFDA Investigator Lt. Carlos Sanchez. Elizabeth Aguilar-Tarchi is the Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted the case and Delia Montiel is the Victim Witness Advocate assigned to the case.

"I commend the team that worked diligently on this case to ensure that this defendant was held accountable for the crime he committed," added DA Harris.

Defendant Ramirez, a Mexican citizen living in San Francisco at the time of the murder, was arrested by FBI officials in June 2006 in Cancun, Mexico. He was returned to San Francisco in April of 2007 at the conclusion of year-long extradition proceedings and charged with one count of murder in violation of Penal Code section 187 with an allegation of use of a deadly weapon pursuant to Penal Code section 12022(b)(1).

According to court documents, on October 22, 2000 defendant Ramirez entered the Richmond District home of 28-year-old Claire Joyce Tempongko and immediately demanded to know with whom the victim had spent the day, as she had been with a friend and her two young children that morning buying Halloween costumes. The victim and the defendant had been in a two-year tumultuous relationship that ended in mid-October 2000, when the victim demanded that the defendant move out of the in-law unit they shared.

The former couple had a documented history of domestic abuse, including an April 1999 attack in which the victim's 10-year-old son witnessed the defendant drag his mother by the hair out her front door into the corridor of her home. Police officers responding to the scene met the victim with her young son at a nearby phone booth where she described the assault and her fear of the defendant. He had initially tried to gain access to the home by breaking a window to the unit on the night of the attack. The victim’s surviving son, now 18-years-old, testified during the trial to the abuse he had witnessed years before. Jurors also heard accounts of three other reported incidents in which the defendant had either assaulted or threatened to harm the victim.

According to the testimony of the victim's son, on the night of the attack the victim responded to a call from the defendant by pleading with him not to come to her home. He ignored her pleas and burst in unannounced. An argument ensued, where he repeatedly demanded to know where she had been. During the course of the dispute, a phone cord was ripped from the wall, the victim’s cell phone was taken by the defendant and he marched to the kitchen to grab a knife. When the defendant returned to where the victim was standing near her sofa, he began stabbing her repeatedly. Her children were nearby as she fought and struggled to defend herself. According to the Chief Medical Examiner, the victim was stabbed 21 times in all, with fatal injuries to her lung, heart and ribcage area as well as defensive wounds to her hands, arm and face.

"This has been a long process, but this conviction brings closure for the victim’s family and rightly holds this defendant accountable for this unspeakable crime," said Beverly Upton, Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Consortium. "Finally, this victim and her family have the justice they deserve."

Having been convicted of second-degree murder for the stabbing death of Claire Joyce Tempongko, defendant Ramirez faces a maximum statutory penalty of 16 years to life. The sentencing of defendant Ramirez is scheduled for December 12, 2008 before Judge Dondero in Department 23 at 9:30am.

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