The illegal immigrant who pled guilty to murdering 25-year-old Ruby Garcia of Grand Rapids, Michigan, earlier this year was sentenced to 39 years behind bars on Thursday.
Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 26, was deported under the Trump administration in 2020, but illegally re-entered the U.S. “at an unknown date,” according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ortiz-Vite, who is from Durango and Puebla, Mexico, shot and killed Garcia on March 22 and dumped her body beside the road. The two, who were friends, had gotten into an argument before the illegal immigrant murdered the 25-year-old Michigan woman.
Ortiz-Vite accepted a plea deal with prosecutors who agreed to drop a first-degree murder charge for a second-degree murder charge. Kent County, Michigan, Circuit Court Judge Mark A. Trusock sentenced him to 39 years in prison on Thursday, News Channel 3 reported.
“You, sir, are a cold blooded murderer,” Trusock told the killer. “This was intentional, and you are a danger to society.”
In court, Ortiz-Vite told the Garcia family that he is “full of guilt and shame.”
“I know right now my words hold little, if any, value to the Garcia family, which is understandable,” he said. “As a man, I stand before you humbly full of guilt and shame.”
The murder added to the nationwide outrage over the Biden administration’s porous southern border. Garcia was murdered just a month after Georgia nursing student Laken Riley was brutally killed by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant while she was on a run. Last month, President-elect Donald Trump, who made immigration a central part of his campaign, called for the death penalty “for any migrant who kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.”
A Michigan State Police sergeant testified in court that Ortiz-Vite and Garcia got into a heated argument before Ortiz-Vite reached for his gun. Forensic pathologist David Start said that the illegal immigrant shot the young woman four times, including twice in the head.
“You started shooting when you were in the car, then took her out of the car, put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger and shot her again,” Judge Trusock said.
Two days after murdering Garcia, Ortiz-Vite called 911 to turn himself over to police.
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“I could have easily blown my brains out, but I wanted to accept my responsibility for my actions,” he said at his sentencing.
After serving his sentence in prison, Ortiz-Vite will likely be deported back to Mexico, Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker said. Ortiz-Vite will be 65 at the time of his release.
