Lake Worth man gets 228-year break on sentence for violent home break-ins

A 23-year-old Lake Worth man, described by prosecutors as a member of a gang that perpetrated a “Category 5 hurricane of violence,” got 228 years shaved off his sentence last week.

Ramon Rosario (Florida Department of Corrections)

Ramon Rosario (Florida Department of Corrections)

Since Ramon Rosario was only 17 when he, as a member of the Headshot Committee, committed a series of violent home invasion robberies in the summer of 2010, his 270-year sentence was illegal under U.S. Supreme Court decisions that outlawed life sentences without parole for juveniles. His attorney, Jake Noble, and Assistant State Attorney Andrew Slater agreed a 42-year sentence was appropriate and Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath signed off on it on Friday.

The new sentence means Rosario, who was once implicated in the 2010 murders of two Circle K clerks in Greenacres, will one day walk free, Noble said. Under a law passed by the Florida Legislature in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings, juveniles are entitled to have their sentences reviewed after 20 years.

Since Rosario has already served nearly six years in prison, his review will come up in about 14 years, Noble said. If a judge finds that he has been rehabilitated, he could be released. then. “It’s an incentive for him to behave in prison,” Noble said.

Rosario was handed the 270-year sentence after he backed out of a plea deal that required him to testify against Darnell Razz and Robert Alvarez, who were ultimately convicted in the murders of Circle K clerks Ralston Muller and Michael Dean Bennett. Rosario pleaded guilty to 15 charges, including racketeering, home invasion robbery with a firearm and kidnapping


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