Man first convicted of kidnapping resentenced

A Wilkinsburg man whose conviction for kidnapping his child was reversed on appeal was resentenced Thursday on a single count of interference with custody of children.

Tex Ortiz, who has already served four years in the case, was ordered to serve a total of two to four years in prison with credit for time served.

A jury found Ortiz, 36, guilty of kidnapping his 2-year-old daughter in May 2015.

However, the state Superior Court reversed the kidnapping conviction in 2017, and the state Supreme Court upheld the reversal late last year.

The Superior Court found that the prosecution failed to show that Ortiz took his daughter to facilitate another felony, as the state law requires.

Ortiz’s attorney argued that interference by a parent cannot be considered a felony for that purpose, and a split Supreme Court agreed.

The case was remanded to Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel, who resentenced Ortiz on Thursday.

At the hearing, his attorney, Brandon Ging, told the court that his client has his GED

diploma, has been working as a tutor in the state prison system, took parenting and anti-violence classes and has not had any misconducts.

“He’s trying to make something of himself,” Mr. Ging said.

Ortiz was raising his daughter after her mother’s death in 2014, but then her maternal grandparents sought custody with an emergency court petition.

Ortiz said he was never informed of the hearing, where a judge granted custody to the grandparents.

Ortiz fled with his daughter and was arrested a couple of weeks later.

He was convicted at trial, and Judge McDaniel ordered him to serve eight to 22 years in prison.

At his hearing on Thursday, he told the judge he would like to get out of prison and try to be a productive person.

“It’s been a long four years,” he said. “I just want another chance to get back to society and apply what I’ve learned.”

Ortiz said he’d spent most of his adult life in and out of prison, but four years in a row is the longest he’d been in. During that time, he continued, he was able to address his mental health and substance abuse issues.

“I understand I put my family through a lot,” he said. “I see that now.”