Montgomery State's Attorney Douglas Gansler, left, talks to reporters while Eliette Ramos, mother of the man Sheinbein is accused of killing, is comforted by a friend, Eric Dawes. (Bill O'Leary-The Washington Post)

By Katherine Shaver
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 26, 1999; Page A5

For the past 17 months, as the international legal battle over Montgomery County murder suspect Samuel Sheinbein wore on, Eliette Ramos remained silent.

In all the legal and political debate over the teenage suspect, Ramos never surfaced. The name of her son, 19, would often be mentioned, though usually as a side note, somewhere in the line about a body found in September 1997 burned, sawed into pieces and dumped in a garbage bag in an Aspen Hill garage.

But yesterday, nine hours after Israel's Supreme Court ruled 3 to 2 that Sheinbein was indeed an Israeli citizen and immune from extradition, Ramos had something to say.

"How can anyone understand this ridiculous decision not to return Sam Sheinbein back to Maryland to face his crime?" she said, standing before a throng of reporters in a purple suit and clutching a rolled-up handkerchief. "This a person who brutally murdered and dismembered my only child."

The 34-year-old mother of Costa Rican descent said she wanted other Americans to feel her "outrage" over the fact that Sheinbein avoided extradition to stand trial here in the death of her son, Alfredo Enrique Tello Jr. He was known as "Freddy."

"I am very upset and disappointed with the Israeli government and judiciary system," Ramos said, reading quietly from a typed statement. Sheinbein and his family, she said, "are laughing at both Israel and the United States because they manipulated both countries."

The woman who wouldn't answer her door when reporters knocked spoke before six television cameras, calling on the United States to cut off financial aid to Israel and asking Americans to write to their members of Congress to "demand Sheinbein's return."

"I personally will not rest with this decision," Ramos said.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas Gansler said Israeli officials have said they will pay for Ramos and her family to attend Sheinbein's trial in Tel Aviv, though he did not say whether she wanted to go. She did not answer any questions.

With her short statement read, Ramos backed away from the microphone and stood quietly next to Eric Dawes, a friend who had accompanied her, as Gansler once again took the podium.

Ramos's eyes grew teary as the news conference continued 30 minutes more, as reporters shouted questions at Gansler: When would Sheinbein's trial in Israel be held? What about the burden of proof? Would Montgomery prosecutors be flying over?

Again, Freddy's name wasn't mentioned.