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UTAH STATE PRISON — A woman who could be at the Utah State Prison for a long time for hitting and killing a man working in his yard as she was fleeing from police while high on drugs, is hoping to get another chance.
"I do want to be able to go back out into the world again," a tearful Ryanna Kerry Ramcke told a member of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Tuesday. "Twelve years is a long time. It's a really long time."
Under the state's sentencing guidelines, Ramcke could potentially be held in prison until September of 2034. If she serves her entire sentence, she would be released in September of 2050.
Ramcke, 23, became emotional as board member Greg Johnson went over her sentencing guidelines on Tuesday. Her tears continued as she recounted the fatal incident that put her back behind bars.
"I know that what happened was wrong and it was my fault," she cried. "There's no excuse. There's no excuse for what happened. I should have stopped the vehicle and I didn't. ... I know what I did was wrong."
In 2019, Ramcke was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to a year in the Utah State Prison. She was also convicted of forgery in another case in 2019, aggravated assault in a third case and another forgery count in a fourth case.
In 2020, she was released from prison on parole, but by September had absconded. During Tuesday's hearing, Ramcke explained that she went to Idaho to try and get clean. But, she admitted, "the minute I came back to Utah I started getting high."
At that point, "I was scared to turn myself in, because I thought I'd go back to prison," she said. So rather than get help, Ramcke said she made the decision to go on the run, "and when they catch me they'll catch me."
That day came on Sept. 22, 2020, when an officer spotted Ramcke, who was high on drugs and driving reckless. When the officer attempted to pull Ramcke over, she sped off into a residential neighborhood in Brigham City, according to charging documents.
"I didn't stop the car and I chose to go into a residential area," she said in tears. "I never meant to hurt that man, I never meant to hurt Paul, and I did, and I hurt him on accident. And I shouldn't have been going that fast, and I shouldn't have gone in a residential area, and I shouldn't have been going at all ... and he's gone."
Going an estimated 50 mph through the residential streets, Ramcke missed a turn, hit a curb, and went across several yards. Paul Stringham, 72, who was outside watering his lawn, was hit. The impact sent him flying 40 feet, the charges state.
Ramcke continued driving, however. She was eventually stopped by the pursuing officer who performed a PIT maneuver on her vehicle and then ordered her out of her car at gunpoint. A passenger who was with Ramcke got out of the car and surrendered. But as the officer opened the driver's door to get Ramcke out, she attempted to drive away again and knocked the officer down with the open door. The officer suffered minor injuries.
Stringham underwent surgery for a broken leg, dislocated knee, broken ribs and internal bleeding. Ramcke was charged in 1st District Court three days later. But on Oct. 24, Stringham succumbed to his injuries. An autopsy determined his death was due to "blunt force injuries" caused be being "struck by vehicle." On Nov. 13, 2020, Ramcke's charges were amended to include manslaughter.
On Sept. 22, 2021 — one year after the crash — she pleaded guilty to all the charges against her. With a mixture of consecutive and concurrent penalties handed down by a judge, Ramcke was sentenced to at least two and up to 30 years in prison.
At Tuesday's hearing. Ramcke noted that she and her attorney are currently appealing her sentence. But she said she is not challenging her conviction. During her hearing, she recalled receiving the phone telling her that Stringham had died.
"The pain of that never goes away, it never goes away. And being able to forgive yourself is the hardest thing," she said.
When asked what she would say to Stringham's family today, Ramcke replied, "I am so sorry and I didn't have the right to do that. I just want them to know that every day I think of them, every single day right before I go to sleep I pray and think of them."
Ramcke told the board that drugs have been the common factor with every conviction she's ever had.
"I live with that every single day. I have to continue to tell myself every day that I made this mistake, but what am I going to do make myself better?" she said.
Johnson noted that Ramcke has had a few disciplinary write-ups since being incarcerated. She admitted that working on anger management is one of the areas she needs to improve on while in prison in addition to drug addiction.
The full five-member board will now vote on whether to grant parole, but more than likely will set a date for a rehearing for Ramcke to see what progress she has made while in prison.
