When Bairon Ramirez-Lopez came home Wednesday afternoon, he heard his pregnant wife talking to another man on the phone and became enraged, believing she was having an affair, a court document states.
That’s when he grabbed her, pulled her into the bedroom of their home and forced her to have sex, according to an affidavit by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. He now stands charged with domestic sexual battery, aggravated battery on a pregnant person and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
While the arrest affidavit doesn’t indicate the relationship between the defendant and the victim, comments in court Friday indicated she was his wife and that there were children present in their home.
After the alleged sexual assault, Ramirez-Lopez left the home and returned around midnight. He grabbed a machete and rubbed it all over the victim’s body while making threats, according to the affidavit. He also held a serrated knife against her throat, causing small cuts to her neck and stomach, the charging document said.
In a video-recorded interview, Ramirez-Lopez allegedly said he forced himself on the victim, believing that if they had sex, she wouldn’t go with another man. He said even though his wife said she was unwilling, he felt she didn’t mean it, according to court documents.
As for the machete and knife, Ramirez-Lopez said he drank a large amount of beer that day and doesn’t remember making such threats, but said, “he didn’t want to kill her, just scare her,” according to the affidavit.
In court on Friday, Assistant Public Defender Carol Bickerstaff, representing the defendant, told the Judge Caroline Shepherd, “This is a pretty unusual situation.”
Shepherd ordered Ramirez-Lopez not to have contact either with the victim or the children living at the house. She also denied a request from him to go to the home to retrieve belongings. He was being held on $60,000 bond early Saturday.
She reminded him that he can possess no weapons: “That includes machetes.”
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