JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — Everything changed for the Bowman family in a split second early in the morning on Dec. 17, 2021.
Today, siblings Joseph and Billie Jo Bowman describe the three years since then as a "nonstop nightmare."
Just before 5 a.m. that morning, Joseph, Billie Jo and their 66-year-old mother Nelie were in their 2003 Chevrolet SUV when an allegedly speeding driver ran a red light on Highway 6 near West Colfax Avenue in Golden. Their car then caught fire.
Behind the wheel of the other car, a 2016 Chevy Malibu, was Guillermo Ramirez, who was 18 years old at the time.
“Your life really does flash before your eyes,” Joseph Bowman told Denver7 Investigates, recounting the moments before the crash. "All I could do was scream. And then he hit us.”
Arrest documents show Ramirez’s toxicology screening on the day of the crash revealed a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.225 — more than three times the legal limit for drivers of drinking age — and the “presence of benzos and cannabinoids.”
The passenger in Ramirez’s car, later identified as 24-year-old Brisia Leon, was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Just about nine months after the crash, on Oct. 1, 2022, Joseph and Billie Jo's mother Nelie died "because of the injuries she sustained in the crash," according to court records.
Joseph and Billie Jo Bowman, who both suffered serious burns and other injuries, were left with a new loss.
Ramirez is currently charged 12 counts related to the two deaths and the serious injuries of two others. The charges against him include multiple counts of vehicular homicide.
“It's an open and shut case,” Joseph Bowman said.
However, more than three years after the crash, the complexity of this case is on full display at the Jefferson County Courthouse as Ramirez's attorneys argue he's not fit to stand trial and seek to have his case thrown out, while the Bowman family fights for accountability for the person they feel is responsible for their mother's death.
The Bowmans' efforts face legal hurdles after a doctor with court services conducted a competency evaluation on Ramirez in February 2024, finding him “incompetent and not restorable," according to court transcripts.
"We are victims. We deserve justice too"
Last fall, Denver7 Investigates highlighted the impact that a recent change in Colorado law had had on some criminal proceedings.
A state law that previously read, "the court may terminate criminal proceedings" now reads, "the court shall dismiss criminal proceedings" if a defendant is found incompetent to proceed.
This means judges have to dismiss cases in which defendants are found incompetent and not restorable, like Ramirez.
- Watch our report on this law change and how a family doctor stabbed by a stranger said he has no doubt the man, who was found incompetent, is still a threat to the community.
“Our mother deserves justice," Joseph Bowman told Denver7 Investigates.
He had reached out to us amid the realization that Ramirez's case might be dropped.
"We are victims," he continued. "We deserve justice too, but she deserves justice far more and the idea that this could all just be dismissed and he could be allowed to walk away is unacceptable."
"It's not a matter of if — it is a matter of when he endangers someone else"
Denver7 Investigates learned Ramirez has already had another case against him dropped for this very reason.
In 2021, roughly five months prior to the car crash in Jefferson County, Ramirez was accused of physically assaulting his girlfriend, who was a minor at the time. He faced multiple felony assault charges, but the case was dismissed by Denver District Court because Ramirez was determined to be "not competent to stand trial and not restorable," according to a spokesperson for the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
But in a rare move, Jefferson County prosecutors in the vehicular homicide case against Ramirez are arguing that the doctor’s opinion is incorrect.
Prosecutors believe “the defendant has already been restored to competency,” according to court filings, citing other interactions with law enforcement since the crash.
Ramirez was charged with violating a protection order on two separate occasions in the months and years after the crash, court documents reveal.
The arrest report in one of the cases alleges Ramirez had taken a shot of tequila in a parked car near a park, where the Lakewood police approached him. He was also cited for public fighting in July 2023 in Denver.
“If this case gets dismissed and he is allowed to just freely re-enter society, it's not a matter of if — it is a matter of when he endangers someone else, and to what severity,” Joseph Bowman said.
"They check for malingering, which is … the faking it."
On top of the multiple interactions with law enforcement, Ramirez’s competency evaluations continuously faced delays.
A letter submitted to the courts by a staff forensic psychologist with the Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health (OCFMH) states Ramirez “did not attend this appointment as scheduled” on Nov. 14, 2022.
Another court document states an evaluation could not be completed on time due to “budget constraints and high caseload volume.”
- Explore Denver7's timeline of this case below.
Denver7 Investigates took the Bowman family's concerns about competency evaluations to Leora Joseph, director of OCFMH.
“We look at supporting documentation. We try and get as much medical history as we can, not to mention criminal justice history,” she said, regarding additional steps that are taken when determining a patient’s competency beyond the typical evaluation.
Director Leora Joseph said that, legally, being “incompetent” does not necessarily mean an individual is severely mentally ill and needs mandatory, in-patient treatment.
“It is a reality that someone may be incompetent to proceed. Maybe they have an intellectual disability, or severe ADHD or dementia, and yet they're not a danger to self or others and they are not able to be hospitalized,” she said.
When asked if there is concern that patients could be faking their symptoms, knowing their cases will be dismissed if they are found incompetent and not restorable, she stated, “I don't worry about that as much.”
“All of our evaluators, even our contract evaluators, are either psychologists or psychiatrists and they check for malingering, which is … the faking it.”
A "sickening position"
Ramirez’s next hearing is Thursday, when the judge is expected to decide whether the court agrees with prosecutors’ arguments, or agrees with the findings of the competency evaluation. Ramirez's attorney declined Denver7 Investigates' request for any interviews or comments on the case.
Meanwhile, Joseph Bowman finds himself in what he calls a "sickening position," advocating for better care for a man he blames for his mother's death.
"You have to go to bat at court and say he needs better care," he said. "He needs doctors to actually give a damn and actually do what is necessary to rehabilitate him to the point of competency."
