Prosecutor vows to seek 40-year term for alleged shooter in Ortiz case
Aimee Ortiz 22 hrs ago
© Orlando Barria for The Boston Globe Rolfi Ferreras Cruz, center, the suspected shooter in the attack on David Ortiz, was taken to court by the police in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on Thursday.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Santo Domingo’s chief prosecutor vowed Friday to seek a 40-year prison term for the man accused of shooting retired Red Sox legend David Ortiz at a bar here Sunday night.
Speaking to television reporters, Milciades Guzmán, the top prosecutor, said he will seek harsh punishment for the alleged gunman, Rolfi Ferreras Cruz.
“He’s not going to see the sun for the next 40 years,” Guzmán said in Spanish.
Late Friday, Dominican authorities indicted nine suspects, including the 25-year-old Cruz, in connection to the shooting, The indictments mean authorities can hold the suspects for up to a year while investigators look into what they say was an orchestrated hit on Ortiz.
A 10th person turned himself in on Friday, according to a lawyer for Jhoel Lopez, a Dominican variety show producer who was injured during the attack on Ortiz. Authorities have two days to bring him to court.
Ortiz, 43, is hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where he was taken Monday for treatment.
Dominican authorities have not said who ordered the attack on Ortiz or what the motive might have been, though they have indicated that they expect to provide more details next week. Officials have said the alleged hit men were paid about $7,800 to murder Ortiz, who is revered in his native country, as well as in Massachusetts.
Documents recently submitted by prosecutors shed light on Cruz’s movements following the shooting at Dial Bar and Lounge.
At about 9:30 p.m. Sunday, 10 minutes after the shooting, Cruz arrived at the home of a man he knew holding a gun and looking scared, according to the documents obtained by the Globe.
Cruz told the man, identified by police as Juan Carlos Reynoso, that he had escaped from people who had tried to attack him and managed to grab their gun. Reynoso said he called Cruz a taxi and Cruz left, according to the documents.
Cruz has reportedly claimed from jail that Ortiz wasn’t his intended target, saying he was confused about his target because he had only been told the color of the man’s clothing.
A spokesman for prosecutors has rejected Cruz’s assertions, which were broadcast by Dominican media outlets.
Authorities allege Cruz was taken to the bar last Sunday on a motorcycle by Eddy Vladimir Feliz Garcia, 23, who fell from the bike following the shooting, was beaten by civilians, and then arrested. Garcia’s lawyer has said his client unwittingly picked up Cruz as a fare.
After the shooting, police found surveillance footage showing Garcia and Cruz, huddling with five other men in a silver car on a street near the bar. The vehicle was driven by Oliver Moises Mirabal Acosta, who is accused of taking possession of the firearm used in the attack and then giving it to another suspect.
Those same men had been seen talking together in the neighborhood of Las Caobas at 5:30 p.m., about four hours before Ortiz was shot.
The documents indiate that police believe the plot to shoot Ortiz was hatched from inside a prison with two inmates, Jose Eduardo Ciprian Lebron and Carlos Rafael Alvarez, communicating with Acosta, Luis Rivas-Clase, 31, and another person to recruit people to participate in the attack.
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