State v. Ortiz
Decision Date | 21 October 1997 |
Citation | 701 So.2d 922 |
Parties | 96-1609 La |
Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Martin E. Regan, Jr., New Orleans, for applicant.
Manuel A. Ortiz, pro se.
Richard P. Ieyoub, Attorney General, Paul D. Connick, Metairie, Terry M. Boudreaux, Gretna, for Respondent.
[96-1609 La. 1] MARCUS, Justice. *
Manuel Ortiz was indicted on two counts of first degree murder for the murders of Tracie Williams Ortiz and Cheryl Mallory, in violation of La. R.S. 14:30. After trial by jury, defendant was found guilty as charged on each count. A sentencing hearing was conducted before the same jury that determined the issue of guilt. The jury unanimously recommended that a sentence of death be imposed on defendant on each count. The trial judge sentenced defendant to death in accordance with the recommendation of the jury.
On appeal, defendant relies on thirty-one assignments of error for reversal of his convictions and sentences. 1
At about 7:00 P.M. on the evening of October 23, 1992, neighbors of Tracie Williams Ortiz, the wife of the defendant, found her severely injured and lying face down in an alley leading from her condominium at 901 Vouray Street in Kenner, Louisiana. [96-1609 La. 2] Tracie, a black woman, had married the defendant in May of that same year. She told them that she had been stabbed and robbed and that her friend was inside the condominium. An emergency call was made to the police, but Tracie died before help arrived. When Jefferson Parish officers Christy Parker and Lynn Able got to the scene, they found Cheryl Mallory wounded inside. She had been shot twice and died at the scene after efforts to resuscitate her proved unsuccessful. The officers found no signs of forced entry and it did not appear to them that the residence had been ransacked. Family members testified at trial that nothing appeared to be missing from Tracie's home.
Shortly after the arrival of the police, the defendant's nephew arrived and spoke to the neighbors who had discovered the body outside. He told them that Tracie had called him that evening and asked whether his uncle, her husband, had given the key to the condominium to anyone because she thought certain items in the home had been disturbed. While they were talking, Tracie screamed and the phone went dead. He immediately drove to the scene but it was too late to render any assistance. He expressed concern that the police might think that his uncle was responsible and reported that his uncle was out of the country at the time.
The coroner, Dr. Susan Garcia, testified that Tracie died from a fatal stab wound to her left breast. She was also stabbed in the back and had defensive wounds on her arms and hands. Cheryl Mallory died from a gunshot wound to her left chest. She had a second gunshot wound to her abdomen, from which a medium caliber copper-jacketed Hydroshock bullet was removed. Another spent Hydroshock bullet also found on the second floor of the condominium. Both of these bullets bore markings indicating that they could have been fired from a Glock nine millimeter pistol. 2 Neither the neighbors that found Tracie nor anyone else testified to having heard any gunshots or sounds of a struggle, possibly indicating [96-1609 La. 3] that a silencer had been used on the gun that killed Cheryl Mallory.
The morning after the murders, Detective Bill Mouret and others conducted a "perimeter search" near the condominium. In the backyard of an adjoining condominium, police found a Glock nine millimeter magazine (fully loaded with Remington cartridges) and a brown gardening glove on an exposed shelf that held painting materials. A Clerke .22 caliber revolver, later determined to have been lent to Tracie by her brother-in-law, was found just under the porch of a shed in the adjoining yard. A fence separating this yard from the yard of the home directly behind the victim's was chipped, suggesting that someone might have climbed it in haste. In the next yard police found another brown gardening glove that appeared to match the first one found. From the path along which possible evidence of the crime was found, police eventually concluded that the murderer may have escaped through a vacant lot in the next block behind the victim's home. Eight days after the murder, on October 31, 1992, police conducted a thorough search of the vacant lot and discovered a Gerber Mark I tactical knife in a sheath. It appeared that identifying marks on the knife had been ground off near the hilt. DNA testing on minute traces of blood found on the knife indicated that it was the weapon used to murder Tracie. The gun used to murder Cheryl Mallory was never recovered.
Further investigation by the police revealed that Tracie, accompanied by the defendant, had purchased two Glock pistols in July, 1992. The Wal-Mart employee who approved the sale testified that Tracie was consulting with the defendant throughout the purchase. An employee from another Wal-Mart location testified that Ortiz had purchased a Glock nine millimeter pistol in May, 1992 and a Glock 40 caliber pistol on September 3, 1992.
While investigating additional gun transactions at a Chalmette sporting goods store, one of the employees, Vickie Billiot, volunteered that on October 17, 1992, just six days before the murders, she had shown a Gerber Mark I tactical knife to the defendant which he purchased along with a Baretta pistol. This was [96-1609 La. 4] the same type of knife that had been found in the wooded lot near the murder scene. At trial, defense counsel attempted to prove that Ortiz had purchased a different type of Gerber knife and not the tactical model with serrated edges identified as one of the murder weapons. The testimony reflected that very few knives of this model are sold by the manufacturer to stores in this region and no sales in Louisiana were recorded at all in 1992. In fact, only 18 knives of this type were sold in the region that year, all shipped to Texas. However, an independent Gerber sales representative testified that he had sold two of the relatively rare knives in question to the Chalmette store out of his sample inventory. Ms. Billiot was steadfast in her testimony at trial that she definitely sold the Gerber Mark I tactical model with serrated edges to the defendant on October 17, 1992.
During the course of the investigation, agents from the FBI put the Kenner police in touch with Carlos Saavedra, who later proved to be the state's most important witness. Saavedra told the police during the investigation and testified at trial that he had known the defendant, Manuel Ortiz, in connection with some mechanic work Ortiz had done on one of his cars. They had also been involved in the joint purchase of a fax machine. Some time in 1992 before June, Ortiz had approached him to become involved in a scheme in which members of the Latin community would purchase vehicles for a small down-payment, insure them against theft, falsely report them as stolen, collect the insurance proceeds, and resell the vehicles in Central America. Saavedra, a long-time informant for the government, actually accompanied Ortiz to look at an Isuzu that Saavedra was to purchase as part of the insurance fraud scheme. The vehicle purchase was not completed but Ortiz proposed that same afternoon that Saavedra take part in a larger scheme. Ortiz suggested that Saavedra murder someone that Ortiz had heavily insured in exchange for part of the life insurance proceeds that would be payable. Saavedra reported the suggested scheme to his contacts with the FBI in June, 1992.
Throughout July and August of 1992, Saavedra continued to [96-1609 La. 5] report to the FBI on his conversations with Ortiz about the proposed deal. He played along with the scheme, tried to find out the identity of the proposed victim and attempted to bring in an undercover FBI agent. In the course of the negotiations, Ortiz told him that the proposed victim would be a black female, living in Kenner, who played tennis, 3 worked out and was athletic. He indicated that he would send Saavedra a packet of materials with a key to the victim's residence and information on the victim's activities. Ortiz asked that he determine when he would commit the murder and tell Ortiz in advance so he could arrange to be out of the country at the time. Ortiz told him that he would provide the murder weapon. At first Ortiz suggested a gun and silencer. Later he told Saavedra he wanted him to stab the victim and make it look like a sexual assault and robbery.
Throughout these discussions, Saavedra was reporting to FBI agents, who testified at trial substantiating Saavedra's story. The negotiations broke down by early September, 1992 because Ortiz did not want to bring in a third person from Texas as Saavedra was proposing (the undercover FBI agent), to help commit the murder. Ortiz told Saavedra that he might bring in a hit man from El Salvador known as "Hercules" to do the job.
Thirteen days after the murders, Detective Mouret contacted Ortiz, who had left for El Salvador the day before the murders and was still there. 4 Ortiz asserted that he did not know what had happened to his wife, even though he admitted having spoken to the nephew who had been at the crime scene. When told that his wife was dead, he advised the detective that he would return to the United States in about ten days when he had completed his business in El Salvador. Ortiz was arrested in Miami when he reentered the country.
Shortly after Ortiz was arrested, police obtained a [96-1609 La. 6] warrant to search his luggage and the home of his parents, which he had listed as his residence when arrested and where he received mail. In the garage, detectives found and seized a grinding wheel. The residue from the grinding machine was later identified by the state's forensic metallurgist as containing debris consistent with...
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... ... State ex rel. Seals v. State, 00-2738 (La. 10/25/02), 831 So.2d 828. He is currently awaiting retrial. Twelfth case ... Manuel Ortiz's case involved a murder-for-hire in which the defendant employed a "hitman" to kill his wife and her friend. This Court affirmed defendant's conviction and sentence. State v. Ortiz, 96-1609 (La. 10/21/97), 701 So.2d 922, cert. denied, 524 U.S. 943, 118 S.Ct. 2352, 141 L.Ed.2d 722 (1998) ... ...
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