During the autopsy on Wotkyns, medical examiners found flecks of gold and black metallic embedded in her skull, Thompson added. When Santa Paula police searched Sarabia’s home, they found a black aluminum baseball bat with gold lettering - and traces of blood - in the garage.The bat also contained red and black cotton fibers, the colors of the T-shirts worn by Wotkyns and Ramirez the night they were slain.When interviewed by investigators, Sarabia was wearing a hooded sweatshirt that was splattered with blood. Several neighbors had told police they had observed a tall, thin male subject roaming the Las Pasadas neighborhood the night of the murders wearing a sweatshirt with the hood up.The suspect’s father, Fermin Sarabia, testified that days after the murders he had taken a cell phone away from Adam, telling him that he was not old enough to be carrying it. Police later found that the phone had been taken from the scene of the murders.The Sarabias have since sold their home several blocks from the scene of the murders. Their son’s attorney is Jay Johnson.
Sarabia preliminary hearing details murders of Wotkyns, Ramirez
February 21, 2003
Santa Paula News
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula TimesThe preliminary hearing for a 16-year-old Santa Paula boy accused of murdering two of his neighbors to joy ride in their flashy car was suspended for one day and will resume Thursday, according to a Santa Paula Police spokesman.Deputy District Attorney John West said Tuesday that Adam Sarabia entered the home of John Ramirez Jr. 59, and his wife, Joann Wotkyns, 55, sometime during the early morning of Oct. 21st through an unlocked door of their upscale Corte La Brisa home.Once inside, Sarabia went upstairs and beat and stabbed the couple to death in their bedroom; he is being charged with first degree murder, burglary and robbery and will be tried as an adult if the case goes to trial.“The preliminary hearing is going very well,” said SPPD Det. Ish Cordero. “Our witnesses are very sure of their statements. . .”Three of Sarabia’s friends testified they drove around with him in the Special Edition 2001 Monte Carlo with checkerboard racing stripes down the sides owned by Wotkyns. The boys, who said Sarabia told them he had borrowed the car from a friend, smoked marijuana and showed the car off to girls on the same day that police discovered the bodies of the murdered couple.Paul Cardona, 16 of Santa Paula, told the court he questioned Sarabia days later after seeing photos of the car in the newspapers in connection with the murders. Cardona testified that Sarabia told him that the friend who loaned him the car had probably murdered the couple and that was why he let Sarabia drive the vehicle.Wotkyns and Ramirez each suffered multiple stab wounds and several deep cuts to the head and face. Both had baseball bat-sized bruises across their bodies, testified DA Investigator Daniel Thompson. Ramirez’s face was flattened and disfigured and Wotkyns had nine stab wounds to the upper back area, including one to the base of the skull.
