Ortiz convicted in 2003 killing
HARTFORD – It was 13 years before Hartford police and state cold case investigators were able to build a murder case against Rafael “Felo” Ortiz for the 2003 shooting and killing of Benjamin “Benji” Baez on Main Street in Hartford, but it it took a Hartford Superior Court jury a little over an hour to conclude Ortiz was guilty.
The jury of seven women and five men returned its guilty verdict just after noon Thursday, convicting Ortiz of the only charge he faced, murder.
The courtroom had been crowded throughout the trial with relatives and friends or Ortiz and Baez. When the jury foreman announced the verdict about 12:30 Thursday, 10 of the 15 relatives and friends of Ortiz in the courtroom stormed out. One slammed the courtroom door as he left.
Defense attorney William Dow asked for the jury to be polled, and each rose to pronounce Ortiz guilty. Ortiz showed no emotion.
Judge David P. Gold increased Ortiz’s bail to $750,000 cash from $250,000 cash at the request of prosecutor John Fahey, and scheduled sentencing for May 2.
In their closing arguments, Fahey and co- counsel Reed Durham argued that the evidence against Ortiz was overwhelming, and jurors seemed to agree. The prosecutors presented three eyewitnesses to the murder, including a man seated in a car with Baez when Ortiz fired a round into his chest, fatally wounding him. The man, who drove Baez to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, at first refused to testify because he was so scared of Ortiz.
But after another eyewitness testified, and consultation with a lawyer about the risk of contempt of court, the man agreed to testify and described seeing Ortiz shoot and kill Baez.
The shooting followed an argument between the two men. Baez asked Ortiz for “work,” meaning he wanted to sell drugs for Ortiz. Ortiz refused and Baez said something about robbing Ortiz. That prompted Ortiz, according to testimony, to retrieve a gun from his car, approach the car Baez was in and shoot Baez.
The killing occurred shortly after midnight on June 11, 2003 in front of 1305 Main St., just north of downtown.