Illinois man sentenced to life for killing adoptive parents

PEORIA, Ill. (WGN) -- A man who confessed to fatally stabbing his parents and dumping their bodies in a central Illinois river was sentenced Friday to life in prison.

Jose Ramirez, 22, confessed last year to killing his parents in their home near Peoria. He later told friends he was “sick” of them, prosecutors said.

The bodies of Susan Brill de Ramirez, a Bradley University professor, and Antonio Ramirez Barron, both 63, were found in October 2018 in the Spoon River near Annawan, about 50 miles from their home.

Ramirez, the adopted son of the victims, waited until his parents were sleeping then went into their bedroom at their home, according to Peoria County prosecutors. He used pepper spray as a distraction and stabbed his father in the stomach and neck, then stabbed his mother when she woke up.

An accomplice, Mathew Roberts of Princeville, pleaded guilty but mentally ill in November and was sentenced to 60 years in prison.