Laredo capital murder trial begins
Former Border Patrol agent stands accused of vigilante-style killings of four women
The capital murder trial of a former U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of carrying out vigilante-style killings of four women in the Laredo area in 2018 begins today in San Antonio and is expected to draw national media attention.
Juan David Ortiz was 35 and a supervisory intelligence officer in the federal agency when he was arrested a day after an alleged fifth victim fled his vehicle and sought help from a nearby state trooper. In the course of confessing to the series of killings, he revealed a disgust with the local sex trade that had motivated his desire to clean it up, authorities said.
Ortiz, now 39, is accused of killing Melissa Ramirez, 29; Claudine Anne Luera, 42; Guiselda Alicia Hernandez, 35; and Nikki Enriquez, 28, a transgender woman. Each had been shot in the head or neck in a two-week period in September 2018. All were prostitutes who worked a stretch of San Bernardo Avenue, just north of downtown Laredo, authorities said.
Ortiz also is charged with aggravated assault and unlawful restraint involving Erika Peña, who jumped from his pickup, distraught and shirtless, and ran to a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper.
Ortiz was arrested the next day, on Sept. 15, 2018, and has been held in the Webb County jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail. He was transferred to the Bexar County jail in mid-october to await his trial.
Ortiz is represented by San Antonio defense attorneys Raymond Fuchs and Joel Perez, who obtained a change of venue to move the trial from Laredo because of extensive media coverage. Perez, a Democrat, defeated Judge Melisa Skinner in the Nov. 8 election to become judge of the 437th District Court. He will be sworn in Jan. 1.
Capital murder is punishable by either death by injection or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Webb County District Attorney Isidro “Chilo” Alaniz, the lead prosecutor, said he has been in close contact with families of the victims and “from the beginning” sought the death penalty for Ortiz.
But Alaniz said in a statement last week that things changed after a late summer meeting he held with relatives of the victims.
“The families unanimously voted and requested that I remove the death penalty and seek life without parole,” Alaniz said. “As one family member stated, ‘Getting the death penalty would be letting him off easy.’ Consequently, I granted their request and made the change in punishment.”
Judge Oscar J. Hale Jr., who presides over the 406th District Court in Webb County, granted the change of venue in October and will hold the trial in the courtroom of Bexar County Court at Law No. 5.
KSAT-12 TV will livestream the proceedings.