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Man sentenced to decades in prison for murdering ex-girlfriend at Phoenix Burger King

The defendant was sentenced on Friday to spend decades in an Arizona prison.

PHOENIX — A man was given a lengthy prison sentence on June 7 after pleading guilty to murdering his ex-girlfriend at a Burger King in Phoenix.

Gerardo V. Alvarez, 30, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder of 25-year-old Maria Ledesma Ramirez on April 12, 2023.

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The victim was shot to death while working at a Burger King near 19th Avenue and Buckeye Road. A girl was also injured in the shooting and taken to the hospital.

One of the victim's co-workers told 12News she had been upset that day after getting a phone call from her ex-boyfriend.

“She told me, if anything happens, to tell her kids she loved them. And that’s it. Then she went to the front, and it happened,” the co-worker told 12News last year.

After he was apprehended by police, Alvarez reportedly admitted to being involved in the shooting.

Ramirez was remembered as a selfless and caring mother.

The murder charge Alvarez pleaded guilty to was categorized as a "domestic violence" offense, court records show. 

In addition to the murder offense, Alvarez was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempted murder and two years for disorderly conduct. The sentences will run consecutively to each other.

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How big is Maricopa County?

Maricopa County is the United States’ 4th largest county in terms of population with 4,485,414 people, according to the 2020 Census.

The county contains around 63% of Arizona’s population and is 9,224 square miles. That makes the county larger than seven U.S. states (Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire).

One of the largest park systems in the nation is also located in Maricopa County. The county has an estimated 120,000 acres of open space parks that includes hundreds of miles of trails, nature centers and campgrounds.

The county’s seat is located in Phoenix, which is also the state capital and the census-designated 5th most populous city in the United States.

The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American Tribe.

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