An illegal immigrant who was deported during the Trump administration before making his way back into the U.S. pleaded guilty earlier this week to killing 25-year-old Michigan resident Ruby Garcia.
Brandon Ortiz-Vite, also 25, pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of second-degree murder, one count of carjacking, one count of carrying a concealed weapon, and one count of using a firearm in the commission of a felony after killing Garcia and dumping her body on the side of a freeway in March, WOOD TV 8 reported. Garcia’s family pushed for a plea deal instead of going through a trial, according to Kent County, Michigan, Prosecutor Chris Becker. Ortiz-Vite faces at least 30 to 37 years in prison.
Shortly after Ortiz-Vite turned himself over to authorities and Garcia’s body was found, an ICE spokesman confirmed to The Daily Wire that the killer is an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Ortiz-Vite “was arrested by Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Detroit on Aug. 31, 2020” and then “removed to Mexico [on] Sept. 29, 2020,” according to ICE.
“At an unknown date and location Ortiz-Vite reentered the United States without inspection by an immigration official,” the ICE spokesman added.
Ortiz-Vite first arrived in the U.S. as a child and was allowed to stay in the country under former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, according to WOOD TV 8. DACA recipients were allowed to seek renewal to remain in the country every two years, but Ortiz-Vite’s DACA status expired in May 2019, a year after he was jailed for breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s home and standing over her bed. The Mexican national wasn’t deported until 2020 after a drunken driving arrest.
After coming back to the U.S. illegally, Ortiz-Vite became friends with Garcia. On March 22 of this year, the illegal immigrant reportedly got into an argument with Garcia while she was driving him home. According to testimony from a detective, “During that altercation, [Ortiz-Vite] remembered that he had his handgun with him.”
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“I believe he said it was instinct that he then reached for the gun and shot her multiple times inside the vehicle,” the detective added.
Two days after Garcia was murdered, Ortiz-Vite called 911 and was heard saying, “I’m calling ’cause I wanna turn myself in for a murder I committed two nights ago.”
Ortiz-Vite is scheduled to be sentenced on October 31.
