Ex-U.S. border guard who admitted killing 4 women convicted of capital murder | 24CA News

A former U.S. Border Patrol agent who confessed to killing 4 intercourse employees in 2018 was convicted Wednesday of capital homicide, after jurors heard recordings of him telling investigators he was attempting to “clean up the streets” of his south Texas hometown.

Juan David Ortiz, 39, receives an automated sentence of life in jail with out the potential of parole as a result of prosecutors determined to not search the loss of life penalty.

Ortiz, a Border Patrol intelligence supervisor on the time of his arrest, was accused of killing Melissa Ramirez, 29, Claudine Anne Luera, 42, Guiselda Alicia Cantu, 35, and Janelle Ortiz, 28. Their our bodies had been discovered alongside roads on the outskirts of Laredo, Texas, in September 2018.

During the trial which started final week, jurors heard Ortiz’s confession throughout a prolonged taped interview with investigators.

Ortiz advised investigators he had been a buyer of many of the ladies, however he additionally expressed disdain for intercourse employees, referring to them as “trash” and “so dirty” and insisting he needed to “clean up the streets.”

He stated “the monster would come out” as he drove alongside a stretch of avenue in Laredo frequented by the ladies.

Defence attorneys stated Ortiz was improperly induced to make the confession and that it shouldn’t be thought of.

Defence lawyer Joel Perez argued that Ortiz, a navy veteran who had been deployed to Iraq, was affected by post-traumatic stress dysfunction, had been affected by insomnia, nightmares and complications, and was medicated and had been ingesting that evening.

Confession was authorized: prosecutors

Prosecutors advised jurors it was a authorized confession supplied by an informed senior regulation enforcement official who was not having a psychological breakdown.

Erika Pena testified that Ortiz picked her up on the night of Sept. 14, 2018, and that she received a nasty feeling when he advised her he was the “next to last person” to have intercourse with Ramirez, whose physique had been discovered every week earlier. She testified that he advised her he was nervous investigators would discover his DNA on the physique.

“It made me think that he was the one who might have been murdering,” Pena, 31, advised the jury.

Pena escaped from his truck at a gasoline station after he pointed a gun at her, and he or she ran straight to a state trooper who was refuelling his car. Ortiz fled.

Authorities tracked Ortiz to a resort parking storage within the early hours of Sept. 15, 2018, and he was arrested.

Capt. Federico Calderon of the Webb County Sheriff’s Department testified that officers who arrested Ortiz knew in regards to the slayings of Ramirez and Luera, and whereas chasing him after Pena’s escape realized {that a} third physique — later recognized as Cantu’s — had been discovered. But Calderon stated it wasn’t till Ortiz’s confession that they realized Janelle Ortiz had been slain.

Webb County Medical Examiner Corinne Stern testified that Ramirez, Luera and Janelle Ortiz had been fatally shot whereas Cantu, who was shot within the neck, died of blunt pressure trauma to the pinnacle.

The bullets collected from the crime scenes got here from the identical gun, and matched the weapon present in Juan David Ortiz’s pickup, a ballistics skilled testified.

Ortiz served within the U.S. navy for practically eight years, till 2009, holding a wide range of medical posts and served a three-year detachment with the marines.