Oakmont woman found guilty of 1st-degree murder in starvation death of 3-year-old stepdaughter

An Oakmont woman was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in the starvation death of her partner’s child.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce R. Beemer also found Laura Ramriez, 31, guilty of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, unlawful restraint and conspiracy to commit homicide in connection with the 2020 death of 3-year-old Bella Seachrist, court records show.

Ramriez was found not guilty in the nonjury trial of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, while three other charges were withdrawn, according to court records.

She is being held in Allegheny County Jail awaiting sentencing. A sentencing hearing had not been scheduled as of Monday.

Frank C. Walker II, Ramriez’s court-appointed attorney, was not immediately available for comment.

Bella, who was Ramriez’s stepdaughter, died at the family’s 10th Street home on June 9, 2020. After she became unresponsive, the young girl was taken to UPMC St. Margaret hospital near Aspinwall, where doctors pronounced her dead.

Ramriez’s partner — Jose Salazar-Ortiz Sr., 32, of Oakmont — was found guilty in May of third-degree murder, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child and conspiracy in Bella’s death. His sentencing is set for Aug. 8.

Bella was subjected to sustained abuse and starvation in her family’s Oakmont home before her death, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

The girl was not allowed to interact with other children in the household. She slept on a cot in a hallway while the others slept in beds in bedrooms, the complaint said.

Ramriez beat the girl daily, the complaint said. The Oakmont woman also sometimes tied Bella to a staircase with shoelaces, hit her with a wooden spoon or forced her to stay in a closet for long periods of time.

Bella was forced to sit for so long on her training potty that her feet became swollen and purple, and she often was made to stand facing a wall with her arms in the air and head tilted up and was not permitted to put her head down, Allegheny County Police investigators said.

At the time of the girl’s death, the household included Salazar-Ortiz; Ramriez, who is not Bella’s biological mother; the couple’s three children; and Ramriez’s sister, Alexis Herrera. Another sister, Ashanti Garcia, was visiting with the family, according to testimony.

Bella’s autopsy photos showed a skinny, bony child with bruises on her body. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said Bella weighed just 29 pounds and was 35 inches long at the time of her death, the complaint said.

The chief medical examiner determined the causes of death to be malnutrition and failure to thrive, along with child abuse and neglect based on evidence of blunt force trauma, the complaint said.

There also was evidence of signs of extreme sexual abuse, the complaint said. The manner of death was ruled homicide.

Herrera, 23, of Charlotte, N.C., is scheduled to go to jury trial on Jan. 29, 2024, on homicide and other charges filed against her.