Months after their son’s death, Karen and Eric Ruffins continue to hold on to the memory of their “third heartbeat.”
“He was my third heartbeat,” Karen said. “My third born. The love of my life.”
Eric Ruffins Jr., a 28-year-old father, was driving four people around in his car when someone in the backseat shot and killed him in January, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives.
“They left him alone in the car,” Karen said. “I saw my son under the sheet.”
Since his death, his family has been left with many unanswered questions.
“Did you know him?” said Eric Sr. “What could have caused this? What anger?’
One of the questions that worries them most is: What if one of the men accused of their son’s death had not been released after his first murder conviction?
“So, where are we now?” Karen said. “Because my son is dead.”
Investigators identified the two people accused of her son’s murder as 28-year-old Dewayne Cathey and 22-year-old Denmonne Lee.
When Lee was a teenager, he and another man, Deonta Johnson, shot and killed cashier John Ruh during a robbery in Lancaster about six years ago.
“I haven’t gotten closure on anything yet,” said Michelle Brace, Ruh’s girlfriend of 22 years. “I will never be with anyone else again.”
Johnson and Lee, who supplied the weapon, were convicted of murder. Lee would be tried as an adult, something Brace insisted on.
“He would now be living without parole,” Brace said.
When George Gascón became LA County’s district attorney in 2020, he banned the prosecution of juveniles as adults — even for murder. This directive pulled 77 cases, including Lee’s, from adult court and kept them in juvenile court.
About a year later, Gascón revised his policy to allow transfers to adult court in the most egregious cases. However, by the time he updated the rule, Lee had already been ordered to remain in the youth system until he was 25 years old.
As time passed, Brace forgave Lee.
“I felt bad for him,” she said. “Really and truly.”
During his rehabilitation, he worked with Gascón and even called him a “role model.”
In 2023, Lee was transferred to a halfway house after serving less than six years. Gascón said Lee was working part-time and attending training.
“Go ahead, let him go and let’s see what happens,” Brace said.
Seven months later, investigators arrested Lee for allegedly killing Ruffins.
“It’s mind-boggling to know that someone can be released after being supposedly ‘rehabilitated’ for a heinous crime in such a short time,” Eric Sr. said.
Gascóne expressed his sadness for the Ruffins family, describing the death as terrible and also expressing his condolences.
“Most of what we do is work,” Gascón said. “We have significant failures. Mr. Ruffins is a tragic failure of the system.”
Gascón, however, doubts that a judge would have approved Lee’s transfer to adult court, citing the emphasis on the teen’s maturity, the seriousness of the crime and past behavior.
“He had no prior significant history,” Gascón said.
Proposition 57, which passed four years before Gascón took office, changed the way juveniles were tried. Prosecutors can recommend adult court, but the judges decide. Recent changes limit transfers to 16- and 17-year-olds, who are presumed to remain in juvenile court.
“The court must be convinced that the young person cannot be rehabilitated,” Gascón said.
In 2022, fewer than 27% of 46 transfer hearings statewide resulted in adult court. Since Gascón’s policy change, his office has recommended 20 for transfer. Of the four cases pending before the court to date, one was approved and two were dismissed, including the case of Uniek Atkins and Sierra Brown.
In 2018, the sisters were found beaten, shot and burned in their Westchester apartment. Atkins’ then-17-year-old ex-boyfriend was arrested for the murders.
“We tried to transfer that case, but the court rejected the transfer,” Gascón said.
Donato Cruikshank was convicted last year of murdering the two sisters and is nearing his final year in Juvenile Detention.
“We also know that young people are easily programmable, and we have many success stories,” Gascón said.
A 17-year-old Monte McKay was almost certain he would go to adult prison. he faced 48 years to life in prison for the night he drove a friend’s car. At a traffic light he saw a police cruiser. He remembers the sirens blaring and everyone in the car yelling at him to drive.
“While I was going over 100 miles per hour, I hit the curb, the car went airborne and hit a brick wall,” McKay said.
At that point, McKay’s painful life in foster care, sibling separation and prison time no longer mattered as a woman walked into the path of the out-of-control car. She died.
“The police, everyone has their guns ready,” McKay said. “I beg them, ‘Please kill me…’ Of course it’s my fault.”
Similar to Lee’s case, McKay remained in the youth system when Gascón began his tenure. He served three years for second-degree murder.
“My whole life has changed,” he said. “I could finally make plans for a future.”
The high school dropout just completed his freshman year at UC Berkeley.
Rehabilitation is key to any success story and plays a role in transfer hearings.
However, LA County Probation tells KCAL News that real rehabilitation efforts are virtually non-existent due to rampant violence and staff shortages. As a result, many of these children leave the system only to return to the gangs that brought them there.
“Do we go back to doing the things that clearly don’t work on a large-scale basis just to feel better?” Gascon said.
Nevertheless, in the eyes of the Ruffins, something needs to change.
“I want the laws to change. I want the laws to be looked at in a different way,” Karen said.
The two men accused of Ruffins’ murder have not yet entered pleas.
“The message needs to get out that we cannot allow an individual to go around and senselessly kill individuals,” Eric Sr. said.
Suzie Suh
