The 48-year-old woman was charged Friday with fatally stabbing her 11-year-old son in Santa Ana.
Salisa Ramaraju was charged with one count of murder and was scheduled to be arrested in Santa Ana’s prison court on Friday due to increased sentences for the personal use of deadly weapons. Her last known speech was in Irvine, police said, but according to recent court documents in the battle for her custody for a child she lived in Virginia.
According to Officer Natalie Garcia of the Santa Ana Police Station, Ramaraju called police at Raquin Taine Inn at 2721 Hotel Terrace near the 55 Expressway around 9:45am on Wednesday.
The mother said she reported that she had killed her son Yathin Ramaraju and then said that she had taken several drugs.
Officers entered the room and found the boy suffering from multiple stab wounds, police said. He was declared dead at the scene.
Police said the woman had been staying at the motel for the past few weeks. Yatin was a student at some point in the Irvine Unified School District, his father said in court documents. Irvine Unified Officials say he was a recent student in the Tustin Unified School District.
Ramaraju has been in custody with the boy’s father, Prakash Raju, since last year accusing her of making medical and school decisions without opinions and claiming there is a problem with substance abuse.
Raju pleaded guilty on June 21, 2023 to driving under the influence of alcohol, with blood alcohol content of more than 0.08%, both driving on misdemeanors and placed on three years of informal probation.
According to criminal charges, Raju’s blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit at .25 when he was arrested on September 4, 2022. Raju had filed a motion requesting early release from his probation conditions, similar to the dismissal of his conviction, which was denied February 7th.
Raju said in court documents where he was born and raised in Bengaluru, India, he works as a senior data architect at Panasonic Avionics Corporation, based in Irvine, a supplier of entertainment and communications in flight.
Raju said he “takes important steps” to ensure he never gets drunk again, including not only abstaining from drinking alcohol, as part of his probation and personal counseling.
According to court records, the couple divorced in January 2018, with their father being given custody and their mother being visited.
After Ramaraj filed a motion to seek custody of his son late last year, they were ordered to go to mediation.
According to court documents filed in November, the mother lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and wanted her son to live with her. She wanted her son to stay with her for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but after Raju agreed to that, she changed his mind and wanted Yatin to stay in California.
She also accused him of refusing to provide details about his recent hospital visit, saying he changed schools for the boy without telling her. She says she learned when the boy’s previous school called her and asked why he didn’t go to class.
Ramaraju accused her ex-husband of “a history of the problem of substance abuse,” adding that she “becomes very aggressive under the influence of alcohol, drugs and smoke.” She accused him of having “severe control issues,” and her son said, “I’m very scared to talk to my mother because I’m in trouble with my dad.”
Ramaraj also accused the father of leaving his son alone for hours at a time.
Raju responded in court documents that they could share joint legal custody and obtain medical records or school records “directly from the provider.”
He accused his ex-wife of “citing issues of abuse and substance abuse that are completely false and untrue.”
After mediation, the two agreed to have Ramaraju have his son son for a winter break, and the father would retain primary physical custody.
Raju criticized the parenting of his ex-wife, saying, “For over 23 years, the absence from the Vedic life of his daughter – as evidenced by her effective abandonment of her from her previous marriage, she demonstrated a lack of parenting commitment.
Raju said their son will “thrive in the supportive community” in Orange County and “will participate in extracurricular activities academically and actively.”
During the summer holidays when the two went to Virginia, Ramaraju said, “suddenly refused to return him to California as we agreed to. She kept him for more than a week after the agreed return date, and even attempted to unilaterally register with a Virginia school without notice, contract or court order.”
Yatin missed the first week of schools in Orange County, he claimed.
“After I was forced to get involved in law enforcement, she eventually brought Yachin back to California,” he said.
He also accused Yathin of signing an application for an updated passport to visit Indian families.
Raju said his ex-wife’s neglect and substance abuse claims were “completely false and unfounded. … As his mother allegedly claimed, there is no history of abuse of alcohol or drugs.”
He also said he was never pleaded guilty to “criminal conduct as his mother allegedly filed.”
He also denied that their son was “scary” about his father.
“I did not fail to notify the mother at Yathin’s new school,” he said.
“I was still moving into a new home in Orange County, but his school district has changed. All this happened while my mother lives in Virginia. I fully notified the mother at Yatin’s new school and she was completely aware of it before Yatin was registered.”
Yathin “thrived – he is a healthy, happy, academically successful student who excels in extracurricular activities such as swimming, gymnastics and mathematics,” Raju said.
Ramaraju was allowed to visit with his son during spring break from Friday to Wednesday from 6pm
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