Prosecutors reportedly said Wednesday they plan to seek the death penalty for a former border patrol agent accused of killing four women.
Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said at a news conference that Juan David Ortiz has been charged with capital murder in the case after he admitted to killing the women and leaving their bodies on the side of the road in Laredo, Texas.
The Associated Press reported that Ortiz told investigators he killed the women “to clean up the streets” of Laredo because local law enforcement was doing a poor job. Authorities have identified the victims as sex workers.
{mosads}Authorities said Ortiz knew most of his victims. Ortiz is charged in the September deaths of Melissa Ramirez, 29; Claudine Luera, 42; Guiselda Alicia Cantu, 35; and Janelle Ortiz, 28.
Ortiz was arrested in mid-September after a woman who said he was trying to kidnap her escaped and notified a state trooper. He was later apprehended in the parking lot of a Laredo hotel after fleeing from authorities.
“Mr. Ortíz has been suspended without pay since his arrest,” a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official said in a Wednesday statement to The Hill. “CBP will continue to support other law enforcement agencies conducting the investigation related to this case.”