GUILTY NY - Valerie Washington, 55, dead, man injured in Schenectady basement, 2 Sept 2015

wfgodot

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One wonders just what else Michael Ortiz might have gotten up to.

Schenectady police arrest suspect for allegedly hitting a man in the head with a shovel and burying him alive next to a woman's decomposing body in a New York basement

⁍ LE arrested Harold Michael Ortiz, 44, for allegedly hitting a man over the head with a shovel and burying him alive
⁍ Police rescued the man after a friend called to say he was missing
⁍ They found him buried alive next to a woman's decomposing body in the basement of the multi-unit hom
⁍ An autopsy was scheduled to be performed on Thursday of the unidentified woman
⁍ Ortiz, who has two prior felonies, was charged with attempted murder and unlawful imprisonment
The story at Daily Mail link above.
 
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Cops-Suspect-hit-man-with-shovel-and-buried-him-6482617.php

A man who two months ago was released from prison after serving 17 years for attempted murder is now accused of whacking a neighbor in the head with a shovel and trying to entomb him under junk in an unfinished basement.
The residence at 1330 Union St. is the same apartment building where police investigators Wednesday night discovered the remains of a woman just hours after rescuing the dazed man.
Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said he believed the autopsy on the woman, scheduled for Thursday morning, had been completed, but that police were still trying to positively identify the victim and had established a "working theory" about what happened to her.

More at link
 
Good god! I'm so glad they were able to save the man, at least. Poor lady - I hope they learn her identity soon. Stuff made of nightmares it sounds like.


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Her name is Valerie Washington, named in the article.
 
Harold Ortiz pleaded guilty and was sentenced to over 30 years in prison.

Man admits killing woman found dead in Schenectady basement - June 2016

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Man-admits-killing-woman-found-dead-in-8101921.php

Harold Ortiz strangled one of his victims and hid her lifeless body in a debris-covered storage cubicle in a Union Street basement. The next day, he took a shovel and whacked another victim in the head, leaving the unconscious man to nearly die under rubble in the same basement.

At the time, Ortiz, 45, was less than two months removed from a 17-year stretch in state prison.

And now he is headed back there

The multiple prior felon admitted Monday to the killing of Valerie Washington, 55, and brutal ambush of Ralph Carson, 65, who miraculously survived being buried for three days under the rubble at 1330 Union St.

Ortiz pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, third-degree grand larceny and possessing stolen property before Judge Matthew Sypniewski.

"He is a person who should never, never be reintegrated in society," Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said. "Within a span of two months, killing one person, almost killing another person ... he clearly is just a despicably dangerous person that we just have to be protected from."

Schenectady murder ‘left a deep hole in our souls’ - August 2016

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2016/aug/16/0816_Ortiz/?dgzrg

Ortiz, most recently of Schenectady, pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and other charges in exchange for a total sentence of 30 years to life in state prison.

Judge Matthew Sypniewski imposed that sentence Monday, calling the life term the only appropriate punishment for Ortiz.

In a Schenectady County courtroom Monday, Vanessa Washington held a photo of her sister, Valerie.

Valerie, she said, showed no fear. She showed strength, generosity and a tremendous faith in God.

“The murder of my sister,” Vanessa Washington told the court, “has left a deep hole in our souls, especially my mother, who is now confined to a wheelchair in a nursing home.”
 

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