NORWICH — Ganesh R. Ramsaran was depicted as crass at family gatherings and disrespectful toward his wife Jennifer Ramsaran, in testimony Friday at the Chenango County Courthouse.
The fifth day of the murder trial of Ramsaran continued where the prosecution called Ramsaran’s best friend, former New Berlin Police Chief, and two members of the victim’s family to testify against the man accused of killing his wife, Jennifer Ramsaran.
• Jason Wicks of Alabama took the stand first, and said he and the defendant have been best friends since 1996. Wicks said while the Ramsarans were living in Arizona, they visited each other multiple days per week. “His (Ramsaran’s) relationship with Jen was great.”
Wicks then said once the Ramsarans moved to New York, the friends kept in contact frequently.
District Attorney Joseph McBride asked Wicks if there was a point he noticed a change in the defendant’s life.
“He met Eileen (Sayles),” Wicks said. “He had known her before, but he started having a relationship with her. He cared for Eileen. He had been kind of depressed before. He was happier; there was a pep in his step.”
Wicks also said, “He (Ramsaran) didn’t talk any different about Jen. He never talked bad about her.”
Wicks recalled Ramsaran talking of divorce with Jennifer. According to his testimony, he told Ramsaran it was important to keep the affair a secret and that if Jen knew, it would make Genesh the guilty party in the divorce.
Ramsaran spent 10-12 days in Boston with Wicks near Halloween of 2012. During the visit, Wicks said, “He loved Eileen. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He said she was his soul mate.” Wicks also said Ramsaran bragged of nude photos Sayles would send him and that she was willing to do anything he wanted her to do sexually.
During a phone conversation between Ramsaran and Sayles, Wicks testified that Ramsaran sounded upbeat and happy whereas conversations with Jennifer weres colder and more distant.
“He was monotone. No feeling. I knew he didn’t love her anymore,” Wicks said.
According to Wicks, Ramsaran bought Sayles clothes, dresses, and a collar for her dogs, but also bought items for his wife and children.
In the middle of his testimony, Wicks broke into tears and said, “He’s just always been a good friend to me.”
Wicks then discussed what he knew about the split between Ramsaran and Sayles. Sayles went back with her husband, and he said Ramsaran was upset, angry and hurt. Wicks said he spoke with Ramsaran on the phone the night before Jennifer’s disappearance, when Ramsaran disclosed that his relationship with Sayles started again.
Wicks said he received a call from Ramsaran the night Jennifer went missing, but didn’t mention it until approximately five minutes into the conversation. “I thought it was because he was stressed, but it did seem weird,” he added. “I got tickets to fly up ... He called and was upset and didn’t want me coming up. He said he was trying to maintain a sense of normalcy for the kids. He said law enforcement didn’t want (Ramsaran) to do a search.”
Defense Attorny Gilberto Garcia asked Wicks during cross examination how Ramsaran seemed the night before Jennifer went missing.
“Nothing stuck out as being abnormal,” Wicks said.
Garcia asked if Wicks spoke with the defendant once or twice on Dec 11, 2012, the day Jennifer disappeared. Wicks said they spoke at least once, but couldn’t say with certainty if they spoke earlier in the day, prior to the call when Ramsaran said Jennifer was missing.
“Most days we’d text. It’s possible we texted, I don’t remember,” said Wicks.
Wicks said he knew Ramsaran sent Jennifer a text in November, 2012, asking for a divorce, but he himself didn’t see it. Wicks said he told Ramsaran if she found out about the affair, he would “get hammered.”
• Former New Berlin Police Chief Dominic Commesso took the stand next.
Commesso said the day after Ramsaran reported Jennifer missing, he came to the New Berlin Police Station inquiring information of the missing persons case.
According to Commesso, Ramsaran was upset. “He said ‘something terrible has happened,’ and that he ‘just knows it.”
Commesso said the defendant accessed the “Find My iPhone” app on his phone and said he had been trying to find his wife’s phone all night but wasn’t able to get a signal.
Commesso said he then had Ramsaran activate the app, and there was a “ping” — a dot as to the location of the phone.
“It shows a map and there was a dot in the center,” said Commesso. “The map showed Moon Hill Rd. and Route 23 in Plymouth. It looked like (the dot) was moving or traveling.”
Commesso said this led him to believe he should be looking for Jennifer’s vehicle in that area. He called the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office for assistance.
Commesso recalled Ramsaran being distrought about the moving dot, testifying that Ramsaran said, “Oh my God, something terrible happened. There is water there.”
Commesso said he told Ramsaran to go home and police would continue their search. The New Berlin Fire Chief downloaded the same app onto Commesso’s phone so they could attempt to locate the vehicle he thought may have been involved in an accident. Officers spent two hours searching the area but did not locate the phone, said Commesso.
McBride asked how long those searching were standing in the gravel bed where the phone was ultimately found. Commesso replied about ten minutes, and while standing there, he didn’t hear the “ping” noise from the app.
After returning to the office, Commesso said Ramsaran called and told him he had information and wanted to bring it down to the station. According to Commesso, the defendant wanted to share information about a gaming site but the two were unable to open the game.
“He told me that Eileen would be coming down with information and would know how to open the game, and had a photo of someone Jennifer was talking to,” said Commesso.
When Sayles showed up to the station, Commesso said he asked Ramsaran to leave. According to Commesso, Ramsaran said he was going to look for the phone in the area shown on the app, and Commesso instructed him to call 911 if he found it.
Commesso said he had interviewed Eileen for approximately 30 minutes before Ramsaran called and said he found the phone.
“He was crying,” said Commesso, adding that Ramsaran told him he did not touch the phone.
Once authorities arrived on the scene, Commesso said Ramsaran was standing on the bridge next to a sheriff’s deputy. “He was upset, and pointed to where it was,” said Commesso.
Commesso said he instructed Ramsaran to go stand by his vehicle, and said he did not hear the “ping” from the app, but the phone, which he said appeared undamaged, was behind some rocks and grass in an estimated 20-foot drop from the bridge and 30-plus feet out from the bridge.
During cross-examination, Garcia pointed out that Commesso said he saw the signal on the app moving back and forth across the road at approximately 8:30 a.m. the morning after Jennifer went missing. Ramsaran was at the police station with Commesso at that time.
Garcia said his client came to the station and showed the police the app that was used to locate the phone. He later brought the iPad which contained family photos (they were not able to get into the game) and that Ramsaran volunteered to police the information that he was having an affair.
Commesso said he looked at the moving icon on the app for two hours while searching. “It was moving back and forth. That’s why we stood at the gravel bed; the dot was moving.”
Garcia pointed out that Commesso testified the dot was moving while Ramsaran was with him at the station earlier that morning.
• Sister of the late Jennifer Ramsaran, Joann Buff, also took the stand Friday.
Buff testified that she first met the defendant in 1995 at her wedding. She said she didn’t speak with her sister too much until she had children.
With regard to Jennifer’s personality, her sister said, “She was very easy to get along with. Sweet. Always willing to help anyone.”
Buff said she would see her sister (and the children) on holidays and birthdays once the Ramsarans moved back to New York from Arizona.
McBride asked Buff if she ever saw Ramsaran do anything inappropriate. Buff testified that at her father’s 70th birthday party, the defendant flirted with a family friend.
“He was always kidding about having extra wives and things not respectable toward a wife.”
Buff said she didn’t want her children around the defendant because, “He acts crass sometimes.”
Jennifer’s sister said she offered to come out to help the day after Jennifer was reported missing, but that Ramsaran told her no. “He was emotional and crying,” she said.
Buff made the drive regardless and said when she arrived at the family’s home, there were two detectives at the house. One detective asked to talk to Buff outside.
Buff testified that Ramsaran made a post to Facebook that said the first funeral he will ever have to go to would be his wife’s. He offered to take it down right away, she said.
McBride asked Buff if the defendant said anything to her about Jennifer on Dec. 13, 2012.
“When we got back, he pulled us aside and he alleged my sister was sexting other men and was obsessed with games. He was screaming she betrayed him,” she testified.
With regard to the defendant’s affair, Buff recalled Ramsaran telling her of rumors, but she said, “He kind of said it in a manner to make me believe they were false.”
“At some point, he yelled that Eileen was a better mother to the kids than Jennifer was,” said Buff.
• Thomas Renz, Jennifer’s father, was the last to take the stand on Friday. Renz said he and his wife lived in New Berlin for six months out of the year, and Arizona the remainder of the year. Once Jennifer was reported missing, he and his wife moved back within two weeks. He said his house and the Ramsarans’ house were 300 feet apart.
Renz said prior to Jennifer’s disappearance he would see her and the children daily. He would see the defendant “a couple times a week.”
When asked how Ramsaran treated Jennifer, Renz said, “Not good at the end. He asked for a divorce.”
Renz said if Ramsaran didn’t like something, he would yell. He recalled a time when Ramsaran yelled at one of their daughters for coughing excessively while riding in the car.
When asked who ran the household, Renz said, “He (Ramsaran) was in control.”
Renz also testified that Ramsaran called Sayles a better mother than Jennifer.
On the day Jennifer went missing, Renz said Ramsaran called him and that Renz tried to calm him down and said she wasn’t that late. Renz said after speaking with his other daughter, Joann Buff, he decided to make reservations and flew home the next day.
According to Renz, on Dec. 13, 2012, Ramsaran told him that Jennifer ran away with someone.
“He kept telling me she was taking drugs and ran off with someone,” Renz said. He said the defendant brought him a bag of what Ramsaran said were prescription drugs she had been taking.
Renz said Ramsaran came over to his house and said that he had to get away, and asked Renz to take him for a drive. According to Renz, Ramsaran directed him where to drive. He said he thought Ramsaran was taking him to the location where Jennifer’s phone was found. But during cross-examination, Renz said Ramsaran did not tell him that was the intended destination.
According to Renz, while driving, he said he saw two mini-vans that matched the color of his daughters, which he described as “unique.”
Renz said Ramsaran received a phone call and said he had to return home and to turn around.
Jennifer’s van was located at Plank Road Manner on Route 23. The two drove past the van twice.
“He guided you past your daughter’s van twice and he didn’t point it out either time?” McBride asked.
He said the van was facing the road and was in plain view to anyone who may have been looking.
Renz said he recognized the van as the color of his daughter’s but did not notify Ramsaran. He drove back to the location after dropping off the defendant, realized it was Jennifer’s van, and called 911.
Garcia asked Renz about the condition of the van. According to Renz, it was dirty and covered with dry mud. He said it seemed as though it had traveled at a high speed on a muddy road.
“You found it (the van),” said Garcia. “Just like Remy found the phone. The cops didn’t.”
The prosecution is expected to call Eileen Sayles, the woman with whom Ramsaran was having an affair, to the stand Monday.