Inmate charged in Amsterdam double homicide

PHOTOGRAPHER: Edward Munger Jr.

Police charged a local man Friday in the gruesome stabbing deaths of two people in a Locust Avenue apartment six months ago

A Montgomery County grand jury issued an indictment Friday against Ivan Ramos, 30, of 222 Woodrow Road, and he was arrested not long afterward by Amsterdam police and sent to the Montgomery County jail, police announced Friday morning.

Ramos is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and first-degree criminal possession of a weapon, according to a news release. He is accused of killing Cheryl A. Goss, 46, and William B. McDermott, 56, in McDermott’s apartment at 359 Locust Ave. on March 2.

Amsterdam police spokesman Det. Lt. Kurt Conroy said some details of the investigation would be released at a news conference at 1 p.m. Monday at police headquarters.

Police had no trouble finding Ramos after the indictment was issued Friday. He has been behind bars on unrelated charges since March 3, when police put an end to what they said was a mini-crime spree:

• In December, he was charged with first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery in a Nov. 29 home invasion on Guy Park Avenue. Police said two men, one with a shotgun, barged into the apartment and took electronics and cash. One of the victims jumped through a window to escape. Ramos was subsequently freed on bail in that case.

• On Feb. 3, an expensive piece of construction equipment was stolen from a yard at 277 Locust Ave. Police charged Ramos on March 3 with criminal possession of stolen property in that case.

• After his March 3 arrest, Ramos was charged with first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery in connection with an October home invasion on East Main Street in which a man and woman reported being pistol-whipped and robbed of cash and a laptop computer.

Ramos has since pleaded guilty and been sent to prison in the stolen property case. The burglary and robbery charges in the home invasions are still pending.

Police were called to the apartment house on Locust Avenue — in a neighborhood not considered prone to crime — before 6 a.m. March 2 by a resident of a neighboring apartment who had just come home from work to find McDermott’s door ajar and the two victims dead inside.

Goss’ two daughters sobbed in front of the home later that morning, before the victims’ identities had been released. They said they knew their mother was dead — and they said at that time they believed Ramos did it.

Police searched on top of buildings and reviewed the scene from a helicopter during the investigation. State police divers spent several days plying the North Chuctanunda Creek in search of evidence, and police earlier this summer said an arrest in the case was hinging on forensic evidence that was collected and sent to a state police laboratory.