The man charged in Jacksonville’s first murder of 2008 was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison. He pleaded guilty to a count of first-degree murder.
On March 16, 2008, police found William Ramsey, 22, of 520-D Stonewall Drive, an assistant manager for Walgreens in Cabot, dead in his apartment after they were called by Ramsey’s co-workers to check on his welfare. The death was the city’s first of seven homicides for 2008.
Initially, Lt. Martin Cass, Jacksonville Police Department spokesman, said Ramsey may have been beaten to death, but investigators found a number of lacerations on Ramsey. Cass said it appeared that Ramsey had been dead for a more than a day.
Ramsey’s killer turned out to be a neighbor of his, Derrick Alan Cox, 26.
Ramsey had been stabbed at least nine times in the face and neck and his apartment had been ransacked, according to Melanie Martin, a Pulaski County deputy prosecutor.
Cox’s DNA was found under Ramsey’s fingernails and Ramsey’s Xbox game was found in the killer’s apartment, along with the murder weapon—a blood-stained, five-inch knife with a bent tip.
Cox was also apparently taking Ramsey’s car at night while Ramsey slept. Investigators still aren’t sure how Cox got the key or how the two men knew each other.
Ramsey had worked at the Cabot Walgreens and just recently moved to Jacksonville.
Cox’s murder charge will run concurrently with a 20-year sentence he received in August on two counts of second-degree sexual assault involving a 13-year-old girl in Saline County.
