Prosecutors: Ewing man confessed to killing girlfriend
EWING >> A Ewing man called an acquaintance and made a startling confession, prosecutors said.
Carlos Ortiz, a convicted felon who had been paroled for robbery in 2014, told the person on the other end of the line he made a “mistake,” prosecutors said at a bail hearing Thursday.
Ortiz’s mistake was monumental, said Skylar Weissman, an assistant prosecutor and head of the homicide unit.
He bludgeoned his girlfriend, 51-year-old Rufina Castro, with a Corona beer bottle, wrapped a phone cord charger around her neck and strangled her to death this month inside their home on the 300 block of Ewingville Road.
Prosecutors did not say why they believe the couple’s argument became violent. Ortiz faces charges of murder and weapons offense for the heinous Aug. 16 slaying in Ewing.
Judge Pedro Jimenez kept bail at $1 million cash for the 50-year-old accused killer, who hid his girlfriend’s lifeless body under a pile of clothes and blankets inside a first-floor bedroom, Weissman said.
Castro’s body was discovered a day later, Aug. 17, after police were called to the residence around 3 a.m. for a welfare check. She was on the floor of her bedroom, prosecutors said.
Authorities said there was no sign of forced entry, Rufina Castro
leading them to suspect domestic violence.
Ortiz was nowhere to be found. He skipped town in a Ford Explorer.
The person who Ortiz confessed to helped authorities track down the suspect, Weissman said.
After the phone call, the witness alerted Ewing police to what Ortiz had said and provided authorities with his whereabouts, Weissman said.
Authorities discovered the Ford Explorer outside of a hotel in Belleville, and Ortiz was taken into custody, prosecutors said.
Ortiz has two prior felony convictions for drugs and robbery, prosecutors said.
The robbery out of Hudson County occurred July 4, 2010.
Ortiz was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2011, according to state records.
After serving more than four years of the sentence, he was released from South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton in October 2014.
Castro was an unsuspecting victim, prosecutors said.
She worked at the ShopRite on North Olden Avenue in Ewing beginning in May 2014.
Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, Castro left behind three beloved children: Eduardo Castro, Betty Webb and Roxana Galindoand, according to her Facebook page.
Castro’s friends described her as “a very caring mother who worked very hard and struggled to make ends meet.” They created a GoFundMe page to raise money for her funeral expenses.
The home where the murdered happened was listed as owned by Castro and Roberto Miranda, who purchased the house in October 2006 for $249,500, according to property tax records.
Miranda was not a suspect in Castro’s slaying.
A neighbor on Ewingville Road, who wished to remain anonymous, said a renter lived at the home.
It’s unclear if Ortiz rented the home, but court records list his address as the 384 Ewingville Road where the murder occurred.
The home was in foreclosure and was being sold back to the bank Sept. 14.
Prosecutors did not say if the couple argued about financial distress.