By Steve Neavling
A former Border Patrol agent was convicted of capitol murder Wednesday in the deaths of four women in Laredo, Texas.
The murder trial of Juan David Ortiz began on Nov. 28.
Ortiz told police he was trying to “clean up the streets” when he killed Guiselda Alicia Hernandez, 34, Claudine Anne Luera, 42, Janelle Ortiz, 28, and Melissa Ramirez, 29.
During the trial, prosecutors played a recording for jurors of Ortiz confessing. He said he wanted to “clean up the streets” of sex workers, whom he referred to as “trash” and “so dirty.”
One juror fainted when shown the autopsy photos.
Ortiz now faces up to life in prison.
Ortiz found the women on the side of the road and killed them in rural parts of Webb County, prosecutors said.
Ortiz was arrested after a sex worker who suspected Ortiz had killer her friend was in a white pickup truck with the alleged killer when he pulled out a gun and grabbed her shirt. She managed to escape, and he fled.
The woman flagged down a state trooper, and after a pursuit, police found the 35-year-old hiding in a hotel parking lot at 2:30 a.m.
Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty but changed their minds after speaking to the victims’ families, who unanimously preferred that he spend the rest of his life in prison.
