Florida teen who killed mother in fight over grades, buried body at church, pleads guilty

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WKMG) -- Gregory Ramos was 15 years old when he confessed to killing his mother and burying her body in 2018, officials said.

Ramos, now 17, faced a judge and entered a plea of guilty for first-degree murder, abuse of a body and tampering with evidence Wednesday.

Ramos's mother, 46-year-old Gail Cleavenger, was reported missing in November 2018. Volusia County deputies said they found her body buried under a fire pit at a church a few days after her death, once Ramos confessed to strangling her at their home.

Court documents show the two were arguing over the teen's grades. Ramos initially told detectives that he returned home from school and discovered that the house had been burglarized, his mother was missing and her van was running in the driveway. He then made a 911 call to report the alleged burglary.

The Orlando Sentinel reports Ramos called two friends who were 17 years old at the time to stage a robbery by taking some electronics, and then helping him bury Cleavenger's body under a fire pit near a church. The other two were charged as adults with being accessories to a capital felony after the fact.

The Sentinel reports a grand jury indicted Ramos for first-degree murder in 2018. Wednesday's plea agreement calls for 45 years in prison for the murder charge with probation for the rest of his life with an opportunity to review the sentence after 25 years in prison. The plea agreement calls for all prison sentences to be served concurrently, and for his time in jail ahead of sentencing to count toward his time served.