New details emerge as suspect in deadly case returns to Phoenix | Criminal files

PHOENIX – Court documents provide new details in an unsolved case involving a fatal stabbing that occurred in the Phoenix area more than a decade ago.

The suspect in this case was recently found and brought back to the Valley.

Here are the details.

Who is the suspect?

Court documents identified the suspect as Jose Vergara Ortiz. Meanwhile, a statement released by Tempe police on November 15 states that the suspect’s full name is Jose Juan Vergara Ortiz.

Ortiz, according to court documents, was 32 at the time of his return to the Valley. At the time of the fatal incident, Ortiz was 16 years old.

What happened?

2008

In court documents, investigators wrote that the cold case occurred on the evening of Dec. 27, 2008, at an apartment in the McKellips and Scottsdale Roads area of ​​Tempe.

According to court documents, the victim was stabbed inside his apartment and died after being taken to the hospital. Although court documents do not list the victim’s name, Tempe police identified the victim as 20-year-old David Lopez.

According to Tempe police, Lopez showed up at a neighbor’s door, asking the neighbor to call 911.

“Before his death, he told police and a neighbor that he had been stabbed by an unknown Hispanic man who had stolen $1,000 from him,” part of the court documents read. “The victim’s family and friends learned that he did not own a vehicle, but did own $1,000 because he was in the market to purchase a vehicle.”

Investigators say surveillance video shows the victim entering the bus at Scottsdale Fashion Square with an unknown Hispanic man who was wearing a sweatshirt matching the one found at the scene. This sweatshirt, found by detectives at the scene, was bloody and bore the name of a company.

“The victim allowed this (Hispanic man) to use his cell phone. The victim and (Hispanic man) exit the bus at Scottsdale and McKellips, near the victim’s apartment,” one part reads court documents.

Police said according to the victim’s roommate, she saw the victim with a Hispanic man as she left work.

“The victim told him to tell (the Hispanic man) that he was able to get ‘books’ of drugs and that he was not a cop,” investigators wrote. “(The victim) also told the roommate that he was going to show (the Hispanic man) the car he was going to buy.”

The roommate, according to investigators, said she viewed surveillance video from the bus and thought the Hispanic man in the video was the same person she saw the victim with. However, she was unable to identify herself during an identification session.

2014

The suspect, according to court documents, was later identified after investigators made contact in 2014 with a woman who had ties to the suspect’s family members. This woman, at the time she was contacted by investigators, worked at the company whose name was on the bloody sweatshirt investigators found in the area where the incident occurred.

According to court documents, investigators also discovered that Scottsdale police had obtained a court-ordered swab from Ortiz in connection with a previous car theft case.

“Police submitted (Ortiz’s) mouth swab and found that it matched the profile of the sweatshirt, as well as one of the shoe insoles found at the scene,” investigators wrote. “Jose Vergara Ortiz also looked like the suspect in the bus video.”

Investigators say they later contacted a person close to Ortiz, who said Ortiz “admitted to committing murder before traveling to Mexico with his family and was using an alias.”

“Police were informed that (Ortiz) reported stealing money from the victim after stabbing her,” read part of the court documents. “Police learned he had been arrested in Mexico for armed robbery and incarcerated in Mexico City.”

2021-2024

According to court documents, a grand jury warrant was issued for Ortiz’s arrest in March 2021, and Ortiz was returned to Phoenix by the U.S. Marshals on November 15, 2024.

Investigators say that during an interview that took place after Ortiz read his Miranda rights, Ortiz admitted to going to the victim’s apartment with the intention of buying drugs that Ortiz said he could smoke or sell.

“(Ortiz) said he paid the victim $50, which the victim took to his apartment. When the victim met (Ortiz) at his door, (Ortiz) said the victim joked with him that “he would have stabbed him if he was a cop, while waving a knife in his direction,” part of the court documents reads. “(Ortiz) stated that he then grabbed the knife with his left hand, held on to it and began to fight the victim. (Ortiz) stated that when they fell to the ground , another knife fell from the victim’s pocket, and he stabbed the victim in the stomach, hand, head and leg.

Ortiz, according to investigators, said he took the $50 he paid the victim, as well as the $1,000 that was on the property before fleeing. He also admitted to throwing the sweatshirt in a dumpster and throwing one of the knives, possibly over a yard wall.

“Jose stated that if he (had) seen the money, he would have taken it and run away, but he did not see it before he fought,” part of the documents read judicial.

What is happening now?

According to court documents, Ortiz is accused of committing several criminal offenses, including murder.

A judge set bail at $40,000 cash-only for Ortiz. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for November 25.