Jose E. Ramos, arrested in Queens, N.Y., four years after the Oct. 10, 2008 shooting death of Tynel Hardwick in Norwich, wrote a letter of apology to Hardwick's mother before providing police with a written statement confessing to the crime.  

"I was the man who hurt your family," Ramos, who is also known as "Kool-Aid," began in the letter to Sheila Harris. "I wish I could tell you why I did it, but I truthfully don't know."

Ramos also wrote a letter to his four sisters, telling them he loved them and was not mad at them for talking to the police about the case.

Evidence continued to mount Thursday against the 32-year-old, who has pleaded not guilty to murder and opted for a jury trial in Superior Court.

He is accused of retrieving a rifle after a dispute at Rumors Bar & Grill, lying in wait in a grass lot across the street from the bar, and shooting Hardwick when Hardwick stepped out the front door to smoke.

Wednesday would have been Hardwick's 37th birthday, according to his family members.

Hardwick's mother was in court Monday for the first day of the trial, but she said she found the details of her son's death too painful.

She has not returned to the trial, but a few other members of the victim's family were in court Thursday when Lt. Corey Poore of the Norwich Police Department testified about the apology letters Ramos wrote to Harris and to his sisters, and detailed Ramos' confession to the crime.

Poore said he and Groton Town Police Detective Heather Beauchamp from the New London County Cold Case Task Force drove Ramos from New York City to Norwich, following his arrest on Sept. 25, 2012. 

Beauchamp is expected to testify when the trial resumes Tuesday.

Ramos talked about the crime on the ride back from New York City and provided the written statement the next morning, before being taken from the Norwich Police Department to his arraignment at the courthouse downtown, according to Poore.

Ramos was remorseful during the ride from New York, Poore testified.

"He felt bad," Poore said. "He cried at various times during the conversation. He wondered if he was going to go to heaven. We talked about some psychological issues."

In his written statement, Ramos said he had several mental illnesses and wanted help. His sisters told police they suspected mental illness, but Ramos had never been diagnosed with any specific condition.

Ramos told Poore he sold the rifle in Hartford after the crime because "it had a body on it."

In his written statement, he said he didn't know Hardwick's name at the time of the shooting, and described him only as a tall, thin black man.

He said at one point that he had been involved in a dispute with a white woman in the bar, and that he spat at her or she spat at him.  He also told the police during the ride to Norwich that Hardwick had come to the woman's defense.

"I remember looking through the scope of the rifle at him and pulling the trigger," Ramos said in the statement. "For the life of me, I can't even remember why I shot him."

He described watching Hardwick drop to the ground and seeing the woman who was with Hardwick run back into the bar.

He initialed a photo of the crime scene to indicate where he had been lying when he fired the shot.

Shown a picture of Hardwick, he said it "looked like a different person" than the man he had shot and that he remembered the man wearing a red hat.

Hardwick was wearing a blue baseball cap when he was shot, according to police.

The state is expected to rest its case early next week. Defense attorney Bruce B. McIntyre is expected to call witnesses, though it is unclear whether Ramos will testify in his own defense.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter @KFLORIN

Editor's note: this version corrects the last name of Groton Town Police Detective Heather Beauchamp.