Man found guilty of manslaughter 22 years after stabbing estranged wife
The guilty verdict after a judge-alone trial comes just days before his second-degree murder trial was set to begin.
In 2004, 26-year-old Rosaura Tolentino Ramos was stabbed to death in her husband's penthouse apartment in Toronto. Twenty-two years later, Juan Antonio Avalos, 65, has been found guilty of manslaughter in an uncontested, one-day trial. Avalos, who immigrated to Canada from El Salvador in 1985, was extradited back to Canada from El Salvador in August 2024.
The court heard that Avalos and Ramos met through a priest at a community centre in 2003 and were married in late November of that year. On August 29, 2004, Avalos went to Ramos' sister's home, where he had been subject to bail conditions restricting his contact with Ramos. The next morning, a neighbor heard a loud Spanish argument and a scream, which was followed by silence.
Surveillance video showed Avalos leaving his penthouse apartment with bags around 8 a.m. on August 30, the day after the incident. Ramos' body was found in the bedroom, with a stab wound to her neck. Avalos was arrested in El Salvador on January 24, 2024, and extradited to Canada in August 2024. He had initially denied the allegations in 2005 but told the court through a translator on Wednesday that he was "innocent" of manslaughter.
The second-degree murder trial, originally set to begin the following Monday, has now been vacated. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for January.
Written by urgent.news from Global News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
