Woman charged with murder claims self-defense

A motion hearing was held on Monday (March 20) for Josie Ortega, a 36-year-old woman who has been charged with the homicide of her boyfriend, Victor Segura. The motion was in regard to an alleged eye injury, which the defense claims was caused by Segura extinguishing a lit cigarette on Ortega’s eyelid.

The intent of the motion, according to 8th Judicial District prosecutor Cosme Ripol, was for the defense to collect “objective” evidence, in the form of medical records, that this eye injury was the result of a cigarette burn, and to furthermore prove that it was Segura who put the cigarette out on her face. If, Ripol continued, the defense failed to provide the proper evidence, he requested the claim be excluded from the case.

Ripol and defense attorney Aleksandar Kostich hit the ground running on their debate, Ripol asserting that the defense would be using the eye injury during trial to claim selfdefense while driving his point that the cigarette was put out underneath Ortega’s eye, not directly on it.

Kostich confirmed that the defendant would be claiming self-defense due to the eye injury, among other reasons. According to Ortega and other individuals involved in the case who were not specified, Segura physically assaulted Ortega and prevented her from leaving the location of the incident, in addition to causing a facial injury with a lit cigarette. He additionally referred to a photo taken by police on the day of the incident which showed a round burn mark on Ortega’s lower eyelid.

To Kostich, the request for medical documentation is a violation of Ortega’s HIPAA and physician-patient privilege rights. Ripol called Kostich’s use of HIPAA a “red herring.”

Ripol also claimed the use of an eye injury in trial would be prejudicial, as he believes the defense might use it to rouse sympathy for Ortega among members of the jury. As a result, he continued, it wouldn’t matter whether or not the cigarette burn affected her eye; this piece of the defense, to him, is completely irrelevant. He even went on to infer that deliberating it would be a waste of time.

“Let me repeat myself, Judge: The state’s objective here is not to chill a constitutional defense,” Ripol said. “It is to assist the court in having a clean trial, in which only relevant and non-prejudicial evidence is admitted.”

Outside of his initial claims that the defense would be claiming self-defense, Ripol did not comment any further on the assertions brought forth by Kostich regarding violence from Segura.

Ortega is being charged with second-degree murder for the death of Segura, which took place on May 12, 2021, when he was allegedly stabbed to death. She also faces two counts of child abuse and one count of tampering with evidence, all third-degree felonies; as well as assault upon a peace officer, a misdemeanor.

Eighth Judicial District Judge Jefferey Shannon did not make a decision at the Monday hearing and said he would reach one by the end of the week. As of press time, Shannon had not yet made a decision of whether or not to grant the motion.