Undocumented immigrant admits killing girlfriend, unborn child in Rock Hill
The York County courtroom gallery late Thursday afternoon filled with tears of the heartbroken, and the sounds of soft Spanish speakers and interpreters translating into English. And then came the English-speaking voice and face of an 8-year-old boy who watched his mother and unborn sister killed in a vicious stabbing almost a year ago to the day.
A boy who called 911 and met the police when they arrived after he first had tried to save his mother, who was sprawled on the deck of a mobile home with more than 20 stab wounds. His voice and his face played on speakers and video screens in the courtroom.
The courtroom, almost filled to capacity, was otherwise totally silent.
“Please, please … my mom, she’s pregnant, I can’t lose her … she has a baby,” the 8-year-old told the 911 dispatcher.
The boy told officials on 911 and again in a police body camera video how he watched his mother stabbed over and over and how he tried to fight off the attacker, his mother’s boyfriend, but could not. The man took his mother’s SUV and fled before police arrived.
There was no saving Leonor Alpizar, 37, and her unborn daughter who was going to be named Brittany on that May 16, 2025 night. Both of them died.
Alpizar suffered 16 wounds to her torso. Her arms and hands had more wounds.
Brittany, 29 weeks pregnant at the time, lived 42 minutes after being born by C-section at a hospital, testimony showed. But she did not survive. Cause of death, prosecutors said: her mother’s trauma.
Visiting Judge Jane Merrill heard that 911 call from Alpizar’s son, Justin. Merrill watched the police body camera video of Justin begging the officer who was first on the scene to help.
The video that showed the tiny, heroic boy telling police what he asked the man who stabbed his mother: “Why did you do this?”
Pedro Mondragon Ramirez, 43, is the defendant. Lawyers and officials in the case say he is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who has been in the country for at least 20 years. Ramirez has been on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hold in the York County jail since his arrest shortly after the killings.
Using an interpreter, he admitted the brutal crimes and pleaded guilty to two murder charges.
Merrill spoke of the stab wounds. She spoke of the frantic 911 call from the boy that when played in court had people wiping tears from their eyes in the gallery.
“What this essentially boils down to is you killed your child, and the mother of your child,” Merrill told Ramirez.
Merrill sentenced Ramirez to the maximum under a plea deal between prosecutors and Ramirez’s lawyer: 50 years in prison.
The Herald was the only media organization in court Thursday.
A mother and a ‘princess’ unborn child died
Ramirez stabbed Alpizar repeatedly in the bedroom of her mobile home on Iris Circle in Rock Hill in front of her son, then fled to Charlotte, about 20 miles north, before police caught him by using stop sticks, prosecutor John Anthony said. Police found the knife used to kill Alpizar, along with blood, in the SUV.
Alpizar made it outside to the porch after being stabbed before she collapsed on the wooden floorboards.
When interviewed by detectives, Ramirez admitted the stabbing after claiming he had found another man’s shirt in the bedroom. The motive for the attack was jealousy, prosecutors said.
Justin was not in court, so as to spare him from having to see the end of what happened. His father, Edgar Juarez Cruz, quietly told the judge through an interpreter how the crimes had affected his son. He asked for the maximum punishment, so his son would never see Ramirez again.
Alpizar’s sister, Modesta, asked for the 50 years through an interpreter. She spoke of the pain of the family and how all had been excitedly awaiting the birth of Brittany, whom she called “a princess.”
Alpizar’s other son, Brayan Ortiz, spoke to the court over the Internet from Mexico City, where he is in nursing school. He asked through an interpreter for the 50 years.
16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett, York County’s top prosecutor, quietly told Merrill that Ramirez deserved “every day” of the 50 years. Prosecutors offered the plea deal of 30 to 50 years so Justin, the 8-year-old witness, would not have to go through a trial, Brackett said.
Brackett called the crime incomprehensible.
“How a man like this could attack a woman, in front of her 8-year-old son, killing her and slaughtering his own child?” Brackett said.
Defense: Ramirez asks for forgiveness, lawyer asks for 30 years
Ramirez told the judge through an interpreter that he caused pain and suffering to Alpizar and her family.
“I pray to God that they are able to forgive me,” he said.
His lawyer, Devon Nielson of the York County Public Defender’s Office, told the judge Ramirez wanted to plead guilty and accept responsibility since shortly after the crime.
“He said, ‘I did it, I’m guilty, I did this,’” Nielson said.
Nielson conceded that the facts of the crime are brutal.
“This is a horrible case,” he said.
Yet Ramirez has had only a shoplifting and speeding ticket in 20-plus years in the United States after coming from Mexico “multiple times,” Nielson argued.
The shirt found the day of the killings “threw him into a rage,” that would have been a “heat of passion” argument had the case gone to trial, Nielson said.
“He has no history of violence,” Nielson said.
Nielson said that when any sentence is completed, Ramirez will be deported to Mexico. He argued that a 30-year sentence would give Ramirez, 43, a chance to not die in prison.
“Fifty years is a life sentence,” Nielson argued. “He’s going to be sent back to Mexico, where he is from, if he is ever released.”
Ramirez will be transferred to the S.C. Department of Corrections to serve the 50-year sentence before any deportation, officials said after court.
This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Undocumented immigrant admits killing girlfriend, unborn child in Rock Hill."
