8 years later, woman gets 35 years in prison for Hillsborough double murder

8 years later, woman gets 35 years in prison for Hillsborough double murder

Dan Sullivan, Times staff

Sat, January 17, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC

5 min read

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.

Samona Ramey testifies last month in the trial of McKinsie Lyons. Ramey pleaded guilty to her role in a robbery she said she committed with Lyons and another man, during which two people were shot and killed in Ruskin. She was sentenced to 35 years in prison Friday. ©Jefferee Woo

It has been almost exactly eight years since Samona Ramey emerged from the darkness outside a Ruskin mobile home, knocked on the door and triggered a chain of events that ended two lives.

Her long legal odyssey through courtrooms, jails and mental hospitals ended Friday in Tampa, where she received a 35-year prison sentence.

Ramey, 40, pleaded guilty almost five years ago to her role in the 2018 slayings of Alexis Martinez and Juanita Solorzano. The pair were shot to death during the robbery she helped carry out. Solorzano was pregnant when she died.

Ramey said nothing Friday as she stood before Hillsborough Circuit Judge Barbara Twine Thomas.

“Unfortunately, in these types of matters, the victims lose and the defendant loses as well,” the judge told Ramey. “Your life will forever be changed because of these events and the loss of life. I hope that you find peace.”

Ramey’s sentence came as part of an agreement with prosecutors that called for her to testify against McKinsie Lyons, her onetime love interest, who was one of two men involved in the robbery.

She testified in his trial last month, helping the state secure a conviction. A jury rejected the death penalty for Lyons, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Ramey also received a 10-year probation sentence to follow her 35-year prison term.

The sentence, while lengthy, was considerably less severe than what she could have received. Along with the murder case, she also admitted to a string of robbery charges. Had she not cooperated, the state likely would have sought a life sentence.

Last month, Ramey sat before a jury in Lyons’ trial and explained what happened the night of Jan. 24, 2018.

She identified herself in a surveillance video, recorded from a camera mounted outside a mobile home on Southeast 14th Avenue in Ruskin. Ramey said she’d been there before to buy drugs.

In the darkness, she stepped onto a porch and knocked at the front door.

Alexis Martinez answered. She asked him for a ride. As he briefly returned inside, two men approached the home, crouching around a corner. Both carried guns.

Ramey identified one of them as Lyons. Several other people who knew him likewise testified that they recognized him in the video.

The footage showed Martinez walking back outside, following Ramey as she moved toward a parked car. As he readied to get in the driver’s seat, one of the gunmen approached from behind.

They began to beat him. He screamed. They chased him as he ran through the yard and back onto the porch.

As the beating continued, Ramey scoured the ground with a cellphone light. She said she was looking for drugs he may have dropped.

Martinez was forced back inside as the men ransacked the home. The gunmen disconnected the security cameras before Martinez and Solorzano were forced into a bathroom and shot to death.

In the days after the robbery, Ramey checked into a Sun City Center hotel. Lyons later met up with her there and talked about what happened.

At trial, she was asked what he said.

“That he killed both of them,” she said.

Ramey’s case lingered in court for nearly eight years, a delay partly due to the state’s pursuit of the death penalty against Lyons and subsequent changes in the law. But concerns for Ramey’s mental health also prolonged the case.

She was declared incompetent to face trial a few months after her arrest and spent time undergoing treatment in a state hospital before returning to court.

In her testimony, Ramey acknowledged that she’d been diagnosed with schizophrenia and described herselfas being mentally and emotionally handicapped. She said she takes medication to control hallucinations and to stave off nightmares.

She also said she was in the grips of a drug addiction when she committed the crimes. She drank. She took methamphetamine. She used Xanax and other prescription pills.

She admitted she’d lied repeatedly to Hillsborough sheriff’s detectives after her arrest. She did so, she said, to protect Lyons. She said she loved him.

Ramey stood stoically, clad in a handcuffs, a red uniform and orange jacket, as she listened to the words of the victims’ families. The typed letters echoed what was uttered earlier this month in Lyons’ sentencing hearing.

From Solorzano’s daughters came memories of a woman whose enduring love instilled a sense of safety in her children. They spoke of being plagued with anxiety, flashbacks, depression and an ever-present sense of loss.

From Martinez’s father came words of a young man who was not perfect but strove to better himself.

“The defendant knew he was a good man and that is why she planned (the robbery) and killed my child,” he wrote.

Judge Twine Thomas spoke directly to Solorzano’s daughters, seated in the courtroom.

“Your presence here speaks volumes of your love for your mother and the significance of her life,” the judge said. She encouraged them to seek comfort through faith, family and other relationships and to emulate the love their mother showed them.

Before the hearing concluded, the judge told Ramey there was “some degree of honor” in her agreement to help the prosecution.

“And I hope that brings you some closure as well,” she said.

About Our Ads

Source