A fourth person has been charged in the kidnapping and murder of Joshua Ramos in Potter County in 2020 — the man who reported the murder to police four months after it happened.
Varley Fuller, 65, of Mansfield, was arrested in Hornell, N.Y., last Friday, with the assistance of Hornell Police Department. He waived extradition proceedings, and was arraigned Monday evening before District Judge Bryan Phelps in Coudersport.
Fuller was remanded to jail without bail, charged with murder in the first, second and third degrees, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, kidnapping to inflict terror or injury and tampering with evidence.
A preliminary hearing for Fuller has been scheduled for Jan. 27 before District Judge Christoper Kalacinski in Galeton.
District Attorney Andy Watson told The Era on Tuesday that he was “uncertain at this time” whether he would pursue the death penalty against Fuller. While the death penalty was sought against the three other defendants — Krysten Crosby, Felicia Cary and Kyle Moore — it was dropped in consideration of their pleas to charges in their individual cases.
According to Coudersport-based state police, Fuller lived at a Clinton Street, Galeton home, with Ramos, 19, and Cary and Crosby, both defendants in the case; along with Wyatt Fuller and three juveniles. Kyle Moore, another defendant, was present at the house as well.
On July 5, 2020, Fuller went to the Coudersport barracks of state police to report he had information relating to the homicide of Ramos, 19.
Fuller told police that on March 29, 2020, early in the morning, he heard a commotion in the kitchen, and went in to see Ramos, Cary and Crosby smashing dishes, with Cary using a baseball bat. Shortly thereafter, accusations were made against Ramos — unfounded accusations, state police said — regarding Crosby, according to the criminal complaint.
Fuller said Moore was the first to strike Ramos with a closed fist, knocking him to the floor. When he was on the floor, Moore began kicking him with his steel-toed boots. Cary and Crosby joined in the assault, the complaint stated.
Fuller told police that various instruments were used against Ramos — a bat, a pipe and a broken piece of glass. He told police that he had his hand on the victim’s throat at one point. The assault was estimated to have lasted an hour, the criminal complaint alleged, and Fuller said he repeatedly told the aggressors they needed to stop, but no one did. When the assault was over, Cary, Crosby and Moore began humiliating Ramos.
The aggressors planned to take Ramos to a remote part of Potter County and leave him there, Fuller said. They took Ramos to Fuller’s minivan, loaded him on the third row seat and got in the van; Fuller drove, Moore rode in the front, and Crosby and Cary rode in the second row. They first drove to a remote area in Stewardson Township, where everyone left the vehicle except Fuller. He told police the others tried to lead Ramos up a hill, but they were unsuccessful, and Ramos lost his blue Nike sandals in the process, the criminal complaint stated.
They got back in the van and “discussed concerns of being captured on a trail camera” before setting off for a different location. Westfield Borough Police pulled the van over in Tioga County for an equipment violation at 1:13 p.m., but released them with a warning and without seeing Ramos, who was concealed with a blanket, according to the complaint.
Fuller continued driving to a remote location off Whitman Road in Harrison Township. The aggressors got Ramos out of the van and went into a thicket. About 45 minutes later, Crosby ran back out to the van, got a 12-foot-long set of jumper cables and returned to the thicket, the complaint alleged. About an hour and a half later, Cary, Crosby and Moore “strolled out of the thicket” without Ramos and got back in the van, and started the return trip to Galeton.
During the drive, Fuller said, he heard the three “bragging about their actions,” and saying that “Ramos was tough and just wouldn’t die,” the complaint stated. Fuller took investigators to the first scene, where the blue sandals were recovered, and to the second scene, where with the help of a K-9, Ramos’ remains were recovered.
State Police Trooper Kyle Wagner, investigator, said Fuller took part in the assault, drove the vehicle used to transport Ramos, failed to inform Westfield Police of the assault and the victim’s presence in the vehicle, and after the crime, sold his van for scrap to a facility in Troupsburg, N.Y.
Fuller is the fourth person charged in connection with the kidnapping, torture and murder of Ramos.
The others were Krysten Crosby, 25, of Tioga, who was sentenced to 31 to 62 years in prison; Felicia Cary, 38, of Galeton, was sentenced to 30 to 60 years; and Kyle Moore, 31, of Galeton, was sentenced to 22 to 44 years.
