McHenry County’s No.-1 most-wanted suspect arrested in 2005 murder of Harvard man after fleeing to Mexico

A man who was charged with a Harvard murder in 2005 – and who had been No. 1 on the McHenry County’s most wanted list ever since – is now in custody of the McHenry County jail.

Nearly 20 years ago, Roberto Valdez-Calixto, now 45, was accused along with three other men in the alleged murder of Cecilio Hernandez Ramirez, 25, of Harvard.

On Feb. 20, 2005, Hernandez Ramirez was beaten and stabbed to death outside a residence along Park Street just after midnight, according to media accounts at the time. About 10 to 15 men were fighting outside the home before the stabbing, police said. Court records allege that Hernandez Ramirez was beaten and stabbed with beer bottles.

Three others charged – Marciano Valdez, Jose Santos Valdez-Calixto and Juan Rivera-Garcia – were also charged in the murder and arrested, but authorities said Roberto Valdez-Calixto fled to Mexico. On March 17, 2005, he was indicted in the case, and a $1 million warrant was issued for his arrest, records show. Roberto Valdez-Calixto is charged with first-degree murder, mob action and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, according to the indictment filed in the McHenry County court.

McHenry County Judge Christopher Harmon ordered Valdez-Calixto to remain in custody while awaiting trial. In a petition seeking the defendant to be detained, Assistant State’s Attorney William Bruce said that after the stabbing death of Hernandez Ramirez, the defendant “fled to Mexico where he remained until he was arrested on this matter Oct. 4, 2023.” Valdez-Calixto was extradited to the United States March 6.

The petition describe details surrounding the fatal incident that began with a party the night of Feb. 19, 2005. Bruce said that after Hernandez Ramirez and another person returned to the house, where they had been hanging out and drinking beer, his car was followed by two other vehicles. All four of the suspects emerged from those vehicles, two in each car, according to the court document.

Hernandez Ramirez and Jose Santos Valdez-Calixto began to argue, and Jose Santos Valdez-Calixto hit Hernandez Ramirez in the face with his fist, causing him to fall to the ground; then Marciano Valdez then took off his belt and hit Hernandez Ramirez with it, the prosecutor wrote. “The defendant and his three co-defendants left in their vehicles” while Hernandez Ramirez was on the ground bleeding from his head, Bruce wrote.

All four men drove to the home of Marciano Valdez about a half mile away where they allegedly “retrieved sticks and bats” and the defendant was seen “remov[ing] an object from the kitchen sink area,” the petition said. The four returned to the home on Park Street and began fighting with a group of individuals there with weapons, the document states.

“The defendant approached Cecilio Hernandez Ramirez while the other three defendants began to chase [another individual] as someone called 911,” the petition said. The person making the 911 call “heard Cecilio Hernandez Ramirez calling for help,” the prosecutor wrote. Another witness “identified the defendant as stabbing him about the body with a knife,” the petition said.

A neighbor saw the victim was “held from behind by one offender while two others where making punching or thrusting movements into [his] chest,” the petition said. The neighbor told police that Jose Santos Valdez-Calixto was holding Hernandez Ramirez from behind as if in a “bear hug.”

Police soon arrested the three co-defendants on the scene; two of them had “a large amount of blood on their clothes” and blood was also found in the car they were in, which later showed to be the victim’s, authorities said. Roberto Valdez-Calixto fled the area, escaping arrest.

Hernandez Ramirez was treated for multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma at a Harvard hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the petition said. An autopsy showed he suffered many stab wounds, including lacerations to his heart, a puncture wound to his right lung, several head wounds and wounds to his back, left upper arm and thigh, prosecutors allege. The cause of death was multiple stab wounds with blunt head trauma as a significant contributing factor to his death, the petition said.

Police found a black, bloodied serrated knife with a bent blade and a broken wooded stick at the scene, according to authorities.

Multiple people identified Roberto Valdez-Calixto as the fourth man in the fight that night; the three co-defendants admitted to taking part in the fight, the petition said.

An arrest warrant for Valdez-Calixto was issued March 17, 2005. Valdez-Calixto is due in court for arraignment March 19, almost exactly 19 years later.

In 2007, Marciano Valdez and Jose Santos Valdez-Calixto were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Juan Rivera-Garcia was convicted of mob action and sentenced to three years in prison, court records show.