Man indicted in 1980 Miramar cold case takes plea deal, sentenced to 12 years
A cold case that Miramar Police considered the oldest one in the city’s history to be “solved” came to an end Monday with Ronald Eugene Richards pleading no contest and accepting a 12-year sentence in the 1980 murder and sexual assault of Evelyn Marie Fisher-Bamforth.
Richards, 76, was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and sexual battery in December 2022, over 40 years after Fisher-Bamforth went to sleep at her Miramar home on Jan. 22, 1980, and was assaulted and bludgeoned to death during the night.
Miramar Police considered Richards a person of interest as soon as three months after her murder, but there was not enough evidence at the time to build a case against him, Det. Jonathan Zeller said at a 2022 news conference announcing his indictment. Police re-tested DNA evidence multiple times over the years, and with advancements in technology were able to bring charges.
Defense attorney Gabe Ermine said Richards will serve his 12-year sentence in Ohio concurrently with a separate sentence he has been serving in that state. Had Richards been convicted at trial, he could have received a life sentence for the sexual battery charge, Ermine said.
Richards will serve less than the 12-year sentence because he will receive gain time under Florida law, which will shorten the sentence, his attorney said. It is unclear how long he will actually serve. Ohio Department of Corrections records show the earliest he is eligible for parole is in July 2027.
Richards became a person of interest in Fisher-Bamforth’s murder in March 1980 when law enforcement officials in Volusia County contacted Miramar Police for assistance arresting Richards in a separate assault and attempted murder of a woman they were investigating in that county.
In the Volusia County case, Richards was convicted in 1981 and spent 39 years in prison. He was released in May 2020, Florida Department of Corrections records show, however the conviction was a violation of his parole in Ohio, where he was convicted of manslaughter against his girlfriend in 1975, leading to his current re-incarceration there.
Richards served four years in prison in Ohio for the manslaughter charge and came to Florida after he was released on parole in 1979. He lived in a home nearby Fisher-Bamforth and her husband, John Bamforth, in the Haven Lakes Estates Mobile Home Park and was known to jog at night, Zeller said.
Fisher-Bamforth’s husband, who lives in England, spoke briefly at Monday’s hearing by Zoom and thanked Miramar Police for their continued work, and thanked Richards for resolving the case, Ermine said.
Information from the Sun Sentinel archives was used in this report.
