Press Release
MANHATTAN MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO KIDNAPPING IN BOTCHED RICHMOND HILL HOME INVASION
Four Women and Baby Held Hostage at Gunpoint
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Tex Ortiz pleaded guilty today to a kidnapping in which five people – including a 9-month-old – were held at gunpoint during a botched home invasion that turned into a hostage standoff in Richmond Hill in November 2020. The case against his co-defendant is pending.
District Attorney Katz said: “Fortunately, a highly volatile and dangerous standoff ended safely. For his role in terrorizing and threatening a defenseless family in their own home, a very dangerous man is going to prison for a long time.”
Ortiz, 38, of First Avenue in Manhattan, pleaded guilty to kidnapping in the second degree. Justice Gia Morris indicated she will sentence Ortiz to a determinate term of 13 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for July 31.
The case against co-defendant Wilbert Wilson, 53, of Valentine Avenue in the Bronx, is pending.
According to the charges:
• On November 17, 2020, at approximately 8:40 p.m., Ortiz and Wilson used a crowbar to enter through a back door of a home on 125th Street in Richmond Hill. Inside the residence were four women and a baby.
• The defendants demanded money from one of the victims, while three other hostages were ziptied and held at gunpoint. Another woman was pistol-whipped on the head causing her to fall into furniture while holding her infant daughter.
• One of the victims managed to call 911 and when police arrived on the scene the young mother ran from the home clutching her baby daughter in her arms.
• The other victims were threatened by the defendants at gunpoint. The defendants at one point used a victim as a human shield. The last hostage was forced to walk in front of them at gunpoint and yell to the police not to shoot.
• The defendants surrendered to police after releasing the last hostage.
Assistant District Attorney Eric Weinstein, of the District Attorney’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Michael Whitney, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.
#