SAN CARLOS — A 61-year-old Oklahoma woman is facing 18 years to life in prison for fatally shooting a San Carlos store owner during a robbery more than 30 years ago, prosecutors said.
Rayna Ramos, also known as Rayna Hoffman, pleaded no contest Wednesday to one count of second-degree murder and admitted to using a firearm in the commission of the crime, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
The court approved the plea bargain, which called for her to serve 18 years to life.
The case was only solved last year when detectives obtained a journal in which Ramos expressed regret for killing Devonshire Little Store owner Shu Ming Tang, prosecutors said.
On April 26, 1993, Ramos entered the business at 20 Devonshire Blvd. at the direction of her husband, who instructed her how to use a handgun to commit the robbery, according to the district attorney’s office. Ramos’ husband waited outside in a car.
Tang resisted and fought with Ramos, who fatally shot him during the struggle, prosecutors said.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said the plea bargain, which allowed Ramos to plead no contest to second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder, was a just outcome for two reasons.
First, Ramos “completely confessed to what she had done and expressed great remorse for what she had done,” Wagstaffe said, and second, she was “working under the complete domination of her husband who was outside the store in the car ordering her to do something she did not want to do.”
There was not enough evidence to prosecute Ramos’ husband, according to the district attorney’s office.
“This plea bargain holds her accountable for murder but gives her a chance at parole after several years,” Wagstaffe said. “Justice was accomplished in this case.”
Tang’s murder rocked the city and was featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” but his killer remained at large for decades. In 2018, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office revisited the case and identified a person of interest living in Washington County, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma authorities were investigating an unrelated case when they found Ramos’ journal, according to NBC Bay Area. At the time, Ramos, a former resident of San Mateo, was living in Dewey, a small town roughly 46 miles north of Tulsa.
Detectives with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ramos on March 16, 2022. She was booked into Washington County jail on a first-degree murder charge and later extradited to the Bay Area.
Tang’s wife sold the Devonshire Little Store shortly after his death and it remained in operation through May of this year, according to the San Mateo Daily Journal.
Ramos is set to be formally sentenced Nov. 16. She remains in custody on no-bail status.
