Robbery gone 'south': Teen convicted of murder in 2019 Panama City Beach slaying
PANAMA CITY — The first defendant to go to trial in the 2019 shooting death of Edward Ross has been found guilty of first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery.
Abel Ortiz, 19, was convicted Wednesday evening after the 12-person jury deliberated for about four and a half hours. Circuit Court Judge Shonna Young Gay set sentencing for Aug. 15.
Background on the case: 1 of 5 suspects in 2019 Panama City Beach slaying pleads not guilty to first degree murder
Another recent verdict: Shooter convicted, gets life sentence in 2020 Holmes County homicide. Here's what happened.
Four other people are charged in the case — two have pleaded guilty and both testified against Ortiz; two others are awaiting trial.
"I've been doing this for a long time," Prosecutor Mark Graham told jurors in his closing argument. "And I've never had a case where I had not one, not two, but three confessions from the defendant. If you look at the admissions, this defendant admitted to intimate details of this crime. How would he know, it wasn't out to the public? Because he was there."
Graham and fellow Prosecutor Frank Sullivan presented evidence and testimony showing that Ortiz, who was just 17 at the time, agreed to participate in a plan to rob Ross, 30, in his home on Dec. 29, 2019. What started as a planned robbery "went south," according to testimony, and the victim was shot multiple times.
The victim's father, Kenneth Ross, testified he was at his Sunset Drive home when three armed men burst through the door looking for his son. When Edward Ross, unarmed, walked down the hall toward them to see who was there, the gunmen opened fire.
Witnesses said Ortiz fired a number of those shots. Medical Examiner Jay Radtke said a bullet recovered from Ross' back was the same caliber as the gun Ortiz used in the attempted robbery.
Bay County Sheriff's Office investigators began a complicated investigation, with hundreds of hours spent tracking down leads and travel across Northwest Florida before making the arrests two months later.
One of the big breaks came when a teacher at Ortiz's school reported that Ortiz told her he had killed a man in Panama City Beach. When she didn't believe him, he told her she could look it up and at the same time gave her details about the crime that were not public knowledge. The teacher testified that she was a mentor to the defendant and told him, "I just pray you're not telling the truth," but Ortiz insisted it was true.
BCSO investigators put together evidence ranging from the types of vehicles used and video of them meeting at a nearby store moments before the shooting, to a taped confession from the defendant.
Prosecutor Sullivan told jurors that while the initial plan only involved a robbery, under Florida's felony murder law all those involved were accountable for what happened, even if they didn't fire the fatal shot.
"He wasn't just going along for the ride," Sullivan said of Ortiz. "He was a willing participant in this armed robbery plan. He was excited about it."
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Abel Ortiz guilty of 2019 murder of Edward Ross in Panama City Beach
