Ex-Border Patrol agent convicted of killing 4 women in Texas
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A former Border Patrol agent who confessed to killing four sex workers in 2018 was convicted Wednesday of capital murder, after jurors heard recordings of him telling investigators he was trying to “clean up the streets” of his South Texas hometown.
Juan David Ortiz, 39, receives an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole because prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty.
Ortiz, a Border Patrol intel supervisor at 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 bodies were found along roads on the outskirts of Laredo in September 2018.
During the trial that began last week, jurors heard Ortiz’s confession during a lengthy taped interview with investigators.
Ortiz told investigators he had been a customer of most of the women, but he also expressed disdain for sex workers, referring to them as “trash” and “so dirty” and insisting he wanted to “clean up the streets.”
He said “the monster would come out” as he drove along a stretch of street in Laredo frequented by the women.
Defense attorneys said Ortiz was improperly induced to make the confession and that it should not be considered. Defense attorney Joel Perez argued that Ortiz, a Navy veteran who had been deployed to Iraq, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, had been suffering from insomnia, nightmares and headaches, and was medicated and had been drinking that night.
Prosecutors told jurors it was a legal confession provided by an educated senior law enforcement official who was not having a mental breakdown.
Erika Pena testified that Ortiz picked her up on the evening of Sept. 14, 2018, and that she got a bad feeling when he told her he was...