Left: Jasmine Blase (Visalia Police Department). Center: Joziah (KFSN/YouTube). Right: Ezequiel Ramirez (VPD).
A California mother has been sentenced to probation for "failing to protect her son" from her monster boyfriend — the child's father who stomped him to death after repeatedly torturing and abusing the 23-month-old.
Jasmine Blase, 24, was sentenced this week to four years of probation and was ordered to participate in a 52-week child abuse prevention program, according to the local ABC affiliate KFSN.
Blase's defense attorney told the TV station that while she will be on probation, Blase "has been punished with a lifetime without her son, Joziah, the light of her life," after the boy's dad, Ezequiel Ramirez, killed him in 2020.
"[Blase] would leave him alone with the codefendant, ultimately resulting in the child's murder," said Tulare County Judge Melinda Reed during Blase's sentencing hearing on Tuesday, KFSN reports.
Blase — along with Ramirez — was originally charged with murder, assault on a child causing death and torture, but she accepted a deal in 2021 that saw her plead guilty to felony child endangerment. She was facing a maximum sentence of six years behind bars, but Reed chose to go with probation, while giving her credit for more than 1,400 days that she served since her arrest in 2020.
In May 2026, Ramirez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with the special circumstance of torture, and seven counts of pimping and soliciting for forcing Blase into prostitution. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 35 years.
"The abuse that culminated in Joziah's death had been ongoing," the Tulare County District Attorney's Office said in a press release announcing Ramirez's sentence and guilty plea. "Joziah's mother described maltreatment by Ramirez that ranged from verbal abuse to lifting the child up off the ground by his hair."
In June 2020, the family had relocated from a hotel in Fresno to a motel in Visalia while Ramirez was "pimping" Blase out, per the DA's office. Blase was not at the motel when Ramirez killed Joziah.
"While Joziah's mother was away from the motel room, Ramirez severely abused Joziah," the DA's office said. "Ramirez did not attempt to aid his son and merely messaged Joziah's mother to come back. When she returned to the motel, she found Joziah unresponsive and breathing irregularly."
Blood was found on the bedding in the couple's motel room and elsewhere, according to prosecutors and police. Ramirez told Blase he "had only kicked Joziah in the stomach and forbade her from calling an ambulance," the DA's office said.
"Instead, he called a family friend and told her Joziah fell down some stairs," the office's press release explained. "The number and nature of Joziah's injuries proved they were the result of inflicted, non-accidental trauma. He had fractures to both sides of his skull, brain swelling and bleeding, fractures to both sides of his ribcage, and bruises, burns, and abrasions to his extremities, limbs, torso, and genitals. The injuries, both internal and external, were consistent with being struck, shaken, thrown, kicked, and burned. An autopsy showed the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head."
According to prosecutors, Ramirez impregnated Blase when she was 15. He was on parole for robbery and statutory rape at the time of Joziah's death. "Ramirez was engaged in pimping out Joziah's mother, who had since turned 18, and at least one other woman in Tulare and Fresno counties," the DA's office said.
"The brutality and callousness of the defendant stand in stark contrast to the innocence and vulnerability of this toddler whose body was bloodied, burned, bruised, and broken by the very person who should have been his protector and caregiver," said Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward in a statement. "This office is grateful to all those who worked tirelessly for little Joziah. This case has made a profound impact not only on the entire prosecution team but also left a lasting impression on each of those who tended to Joziah in his final hours."