Daily Sentinel, The (Grand Junction, CO) - My Life of ...



Daily Sentinel, The (Grand Junction, CO)

September 8, 2006

Man gets 8 years for role in shooting

By MIKE SACCONE

The Daily Sentinel

Lindsay Little, a Grand Junction man who died from pneumonia after an October shooting, would have turned 44 on Wednesday - a fact his family stressed Thursday during the sentencing hearing of a man involved in his death.

Kami Little, sister of Lindsay Little, who was shot at point-blank range in the face Oct. 15 while out for a stroll, told a Mesa County court that her brother liked to spend his birthday with family.

Gary Ortiz, 19, pleaded guilty in July to aggravated robbery charges for his part in the shooting, which eventually led to Lindsay's death.

At the conclusion of the one-hour hearing, Judge David Bottger sentenced Ortiz to eight years in community corrections and ordered the teen to pay more than $10,000 in restitution.

After the shooting and Lindsay's hospital stay at St. Mary's Hospital, he died at home from complications of pneumonia. The coroner, pathologist Dean Havlik, listed the cause of death as "homicide" because Lindsay would never have died were it not for the shooting.

"Your selfish act not only robbed him of his life, but others of his life," Kami said, addressing the court.

Kami, reading from her brother's journal, recounted his final days before his Oct. 27 death from pneumonia.

"One week ago I was shot point-blank on the side of my face," Kami read from his Oct. 22 entry.

She fought back tears as she recounted how one of his eyelids could not close because of tissue damage. He called the feeling of being forced to hold his eye open and threat of losing his vision as "torture."

Five days later, Lindsay's mother discovered him dead in his bed.

Renee Porter, his mother, said she never knew when she became a parent that she would have to navigate her way out of a deep depression because of someone's selfish act.

Porter asked Bottger to impose a prison sentence so Ortiz could have time to reflect upon the act and memories that haunt her every day. She said Ortiz's inability to intercede in the shooting or to call for help showed his disregard for her son's life.

"You made the choice not to call for help, not to look back and hear his screams piercing the night," she said. "He died for no other reason than he was at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Throughout the testimony Ortiz shifted uncomfortably in his seat as his family, seated in the first row behind him, wiped away tears.

Ortiz briefly addressed the court to apologize to the family and to ask for leniency, citing his decision to turn himself in nine days after the shooting.

"I'm a coward for what I have done for my part in your son's death," Ortiz said.

Ortiz's defense attorney, Stephen Laiche, told Bottger that even he was not so audacious as to ask for parole for his client. He said to do so would be an "insult" to the court.

"He's got to be punished," Laiche said. "He's got to be punished for this."

However Laiche said he thought Ortiz's background and lack of major criminal prosecutions in the past made community corrections the more appropriate sentence, despite the family's pleas for a prison sentence.

Bottger agreed.

"There is not a sentence I can impose which will equal the loss of Mr. Little's family," the judge said.

Bottger noted that he was struck by the irony that while Ortiz dealt with stress by cruising town and eventually being a party to a shooting, Little had opted to take a walk and sit by the side of the road to think.

He also said it was ironic that Ortiz clung to a "code of cowardice," and refused to try to help Little as he lie in a pool of his own blood.

However, Bottger said Ortiz was not beyond redemption and "his life can be redirected if he will allow it to be."

The two other suspects involved in the Lindsay Little shooting are currently awaiting sentencing.

Betrina Aguayo, 24, who also pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery charges will appear for sentencing Nov. 13. And confessed triggerman Eric Snyder, 22, will face up to 32 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 27.

(c) 2006 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Sentinel

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download