Speaker 1: All right, Ashley, you have the right to remain silent.
Speaker 1: If you give up that right, anything you say can
Speaker 1: be used against you and court. You have the right
Speaker 1: to talk to a lawyer now and have him or her.
Speaker 2: It's October twenty twelve and twenty five year old Ashley
Speaker 2: Royball is in custody in New Mexico. She was charged
Speaker 2: with burglary and felonie larceny and waved her right to
Speaker 2: remain silent. Instead, Ashley told investigators that she had some
Speaker 2: information about the unsolved murders of Lloyd Dixie and Stephen Ortiz.
Speaker 2: The three were bludgeoned to death by pickaxe on Father's
Speaker 2: Day twenty eleven in the tiny town of l Rancho,
Speaker 2: New Mexico.
Speaker 3: I'm actually the case agent on the jam side of
Speaker 3: the ERTs family now Nancho, Okay.
Speaker 2: It had been sixteen months and there had been no
Speaker 2: arrest or even major leads.
Speaker 4: In the case.
Speaker 2: The victim's daughter, Shari, was the only person talked about
Speaker 2: in town as a potential suspect.
Speaker 3: I understand that you know some details.
Speaker 2: I no, I did it. Imagine how surprised detectives were
Speaker 2: when Ashley says she knows who killed Lloyd, Dixie and
Speaker 2: Stephen Ortiz.
Speaker 3: So why are you telling us?
Speaker 2: Because it's not right to see a good people.
Speaker 5: I grew up with Stephen.
Speaker 3: I'm to school with him, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, detectives knew what she meant. Ashley Royball says she
Speaker 2: was close with all three and mentioned that when her
Speaker 2: own mother died, it was Lloyd and Dixie who helped
Speaker 2: pay for her funeral.
Speaker 3: I wanted to come and I just couldn't.
Speaker 2: So Ashley Roiball was finally ready to break her silence.
Speaker 2: I'm slung glass. And this is the conclusion of the
Speaker 2: Father's Day Murders on American Homicide. This podcast contained subject
Speaker 2: matter which may not be suitable for all audiences. Discretion
Speaker 2: is advised.
Speaker 6: I've known Ashley since around two thousand and one.
Speaker 2: Pastor John Trujillo first met Ashley roy Bay when she
Speaker 2: was in middle school.
Speaker 6: She started coming to church as a little girl. Actually,
Speaker 6: and her sisters we absolutely loved. She was always at
Speaker 6: the church always. I don't think it was in a
Speaker 6: day that go by that her and her sisters were
Speaker 6: never at the church. They would come and clean, they
Speaker 6: would come and help us with the yard. They would
Speaker 6: help us with performances with dramas. They were always part
Speaker 6: of our church, or always part of our family.
Speaker 2: The pastor also knew Ashley outside of the church.
Speaker 6: She grew up with my sons because they were all
Speaker 6: the same age. She even went to problem with my
Speaker 6: oldest son, and it was strange because she.
Speaker 4: Was always willing to help.
Speaker 6: But as she got older, she became less and less
Speaker 6: involved in the church, to the point where she never
Speaker 6: came back again.
Speaker 2: Only knew is what he heard. Then Ashley went down
Speaker 2: the proverbial wrong path.
Speaker 6: I would hear bits and pieces that she was running
Speaker 6: with some of the wrong people, with the wrong crowds, drinking,
Speaker 6: drug use, you know, even to the point where she
Speaker 6: was even getting involved doing things a little bit criminal.
Speaker 2: By the time Ashley turned twenty five, she racked up
Speaker 2: by a lengthy rap sheet, including three felonies. Following her
Speaker 2: arrest in twenty twelve, she decided to clear her conscience.
Speaker 2: She told the police she had first hand information about
Speaker 2: the twenty eleven triple murder in al Natcho.
Speaker 3: So it was Father's Day time.
Speaker 2: Though, Ashley said, back in the early morning hours Father's
Speaker 2: Day twenty eleven, Nick Ortiz needed Ashley to pick him up,
Speaker 2: but why did he call Ashley well, despite the fact
Speaker 2: that she was several years older than him. Nick was
Speaker 2: Ashley's ex boyfriend, so this gets a little confusing. Although
Speaker 2: Nick shared the same last name as Lloyd, Dixie and Stephen,
Speaker 2: they aren't related, but they did act like family and
Speaker 2: along with that, Nick was friends with Sharie or TI's
Speaker 2: son and her brother Stephen. Nick even lived with Sharif
Speaker 2: for a few weeks when he was having issues with
Speaker 2: his parents.
Speaker 6: She would invite him to stay there spend the night.
Speaker 6: Sometimes he became, you know, good friends with Scheri, Jesse,
Speaker 6: you know, the kids, and he was part of our church.
Speaker 2: Nick Ortiz also went to Pastor John's church.
Speaker 6: Nicholas was there almost pretty consistently. And I always willing
Speaker 6: to help if we were doing something at church, what
Speaker 6: do you need me to do? Or he would go
Speaker 6: to the youth pastor and say, you know, what can
Speaker 6: I help out with this? Or what can I do here?
Speaker 6: And you know, constantly wanting to be part of what
Speaker 6: we were doing. You know, he showed himself to be
Speaker 6: a pleasant young man.
Speaker 2: Let's get back to what happened in the early morning
Speaker 2: hours a Father's Day twenty eleven, when Nick called Ashley
Speaker 2: for a ride.
Speaker 3: Do you remember how he sottled on the phone, panicked.
Speaker 3: He sounded like he was in trouble. Yeah, just come
Speaker 3: get me.
Speaker 2: According to Ashley, Nick said he was near Stephen Ortiz's house,
Speaker 2: so Ashley drove there, but when she arrived, she knew
Speaker 2: something was wrong. Nick looked disheveled and he had a
Speaker 2: trash back in his shoes.
Speaker 3: Now when you picked him up, and.
Speaker 5: That's when he told me that he used to pick as.
Speaker 7: He told me that he got Lloyd first, and then
Speaker 7: Stephen in the kitchen, then Dixie in the.
Speaker 2: Virgin You heard that right, Ashley says. Nick admitted to
Speaker 2: killing Lloyd, Dixie and Stephen Ortiz.
Speaker 3: Did he ever give an explanation why it happened?
Speaker 2: Well, he told me his intentions are going to rob them,
Speaker 2: Ashley said. Nick knew Lloyd had cash and a marijuana
Speaker 2: grow at the house because he had spent so much
Speaker 2: time there. But instead of robbing them, Nick killed all
Speaker 2: three and then left without any money or drugs. And then,
Speaker 2: according to Ashley, he threatened her and told her she
Speaker 2: better keep quiet.
Speaker 5: And we talked Nick a couple of times already, but
Speaker 5: if he decides to give it up, he starts naming
Speaker 5: a bunch of the names. We needn't know if you're
Speaker 5: going to come up.
Speaker 3: I mean I didn't pick him up then, I.
Speaker 5: That's all I did.
Speaker 2: So, as you can imagine, the detectives wondered why Ashley
Speaker 2: finally decided to break her silence. They spent the next
Speaker 2: few days looking into Ashley's story, and when they reviewed
Speaker 2: Nick Ortiz's cell phone records from the night of the murders,
Speaker 2: something stood out, so they brought Ashley back for more questioning.
Speaker 3: There's a lot more that you're not telling us. Okay,
Speaker 3: there's a lot more involvement from some different people, and
Speaker 3: that's what we need to clarify.
Speaker 2: After coming Nick's cell phone records from that night, they
Speaker 2: learned a third person was involved. So who else was
Speaker 2: there that night? Sir Ashley said, This mysterious third person.
Speaker 3: Was Jose, So why protect ho?
Speaker 2: Sir Ashley said she was protecting Jose because he is
Speaker 2: her cousin. At the time of the murders, Jose Roibald
Speaker 2: was just fifteen years old, and omitting this information upset detectives.
Speaker 3: I don't want to call it.
Speaker 1: His attorney says, she gives a lot of information, but
Speaker 1: for some reason she withheld this from us.
Speaker 3: We don't need that.
Speaker 2: And that's when Ashley changed her story and admitted that
Speaker 2: her cousin Jose, was also there that night. Reporter Alex
Speaker 2: Tomlin covered this story.
Speaker 8: So Ashley tells the police that they can cock this
Speaker 8: plan to go for and steal money in marijuana, and
Speaker 8: that Nicholas knows the house, he knows the family, he's
Speaker 8: going to be in and out right. She drops the
Speaker 8: two guys, Jose and Nick Off at the family's house.
Speaker 8: The way the story goes from there is Jose kind
Speaker 8: of backs out, doesn't what I put it, bet, but
Speaker 8: Nicholas decides to go ahead and go in. And he
Speaker 8: goes in, he commits the crimes, and he calls to
Speaker 8: get picked up, and she picks him up. He's obviously disheveled.
Speaker 8: I'm sure he's extremely covered in blood after this horrific crime,
Speaker 8: and he's throwing the pickaxe which was later found in
Speaker 8: the field. Ashley roy Baal gives him a place to stay,
Speaker 8: cleans him up up all that, and really they all
Speaker 8: kept quiet.
Speaker 2: The police then questioned Jose Roibaal, and Jose said Ashley's
Speaker 2: story was not true. He claims it was Ashley who
Speaker 2: came up with the idea to go in and murder
Speaker 2: the or teases.
Speaker 8: She supposedly gives them socks to cover their hands, trash
Speaker 8: bags to cover their feet.
Speaker 2: Not only that, but Jose said, Ashley left out another
Speaker 2: key detail. She's the one who provided the murder weapon,
Speaker 2: her grandfather's pickaxe. All of it left investigators wondering who
Speaker 2: and what to believe.
Speaker 8: There's things that kind of don't match ups or shifting stories,
Speaker 8: and then, of course there's always the element that again,
Speaker 8: she was facing her own criminal charges on other things.
Speaker 8: So with Ashley and Jose, the question always remains what
Speaker 8: part did they really play.
Speaker 2: Although the cousins disagreed on some major details, they both
Speaker 2: told investigators that the murderer was Nick or Tease.
Speaker 8: It also just seemed so oh random. It was almost
Speaker 8: like the answer everyone had been waiting for. That surely
Speaker 8: someone must have broken in for something and done this,
Speaker 8: But at the same time, it's been several years, nobody
Speaker 8: had heard anything. All of a sudden it comes forward
Speaker 8: that it's these teenagers, and not only is it teenagers.
Speaker 8: It's teenagers who had been welcomed with open arms into
Speaker 8: this family, and that was even more of a blow,
Speaker 8: you know, But it started to make sense that, well, yeah,
Speaker 8: because he knew the house, he knew how they were,
Speaker 8: he knew that he could get in, and supposedly that
Speaker 8: they had this cash.
Speaker 2: Nick was living with your teases. But then just two
Speaker 2: weeks before the murders, Nick kind of falling out with
Speaker 2: them and Lloyd kicked Nick out. But we're things so
Speaker 2: bad that Nick returned to kill them.
Speaker 8: The only thing that adds up to me is thinking
Speaker 8: about it in the mindset of a teenager, quick cash,
Speaker 8: some pot, It's gonna be easy, and it just you know,
Speaker 8: but yeah, I mean, like, as an adult sitting here,
Speaker 8: what everything about this is so ridiculous.
Speaker 2: The detectives have to figure out who's telling the truth,
Speaker 2: Ashley or Jose Roibaal, and they figured the best way
Speaker 2: to do that was to question Nick Ortiz. Ashley Roiball
Speaker 2: is talking to New Mexico State Police. That's because the
Speaker 2: town of al Rancho, where the murder of Lloyd Dixie
Speaker 2: and Stephen Ortiz happened, doesn't have their own police force,
Speaker 2: so the state police had to get involved. According to Ashley,
Speaker 2: she said her ex boyfriend Nick Ortiz killed Lloyd Dixie
Speaker 2: and Steven Ortiz. Keep in mind that Nick shares the
Speaker 2: same last name of the victims, but they aren't related.
Speaker 2: But Ashley's cousin, Jose says Ashley is the one who
Speaker 2: came up with the idea to murder the r teses.
Speaker 2: He says she even provided the pickaxe. Ashley refuted this.
Speaker 2: She claimed she was simply the getaway driver that night.
Speaker 2: Despite their differences, both cousins accused Nick Ortiz of actually
Speaker 2: carrying out the murders, and in another crazy twist, the
Speaker 2: state police heard a third version of what happened. When
Speaker 2: they questioned Nick.
Speaker 1: Ortis, your name has come up quite a bit, and
Speaker 1: we're talking in reference to the orts sound site, which
Speaker 1: happened a little over two years in twenty eleven.
Speaker 3: And I know we had talked to you a few
Speaker 3: times about it.
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping that you can run me by pretty
Speaker 1: much what happened.
Speaker 2: So Nick agreed that he was with Jose Roi Ball
Speaker 2: the day before the murders.
Speaker 7: Me and them were just been hanging out, just almost
Speaker 7: drinking a little bit getting high.
Speaker 2: But Nick said he was back home with his parents
Speaker 2: by ten pm that night, and then what.
Speaker 3: Did you do after ten? I watched a few movies.
Speaker 7: I woke my dad up around twelve one in the
Speaker 7: morning and tell him Happy Father's Day.
Speaker 3: After that, I went to sleep.
Speaker 2: It's not easy to make out what Nick is saying,
Speaker 2: but he told investigators that after watching a few movies,
Speaker 2: he woke up his dad around twelve or one am
Speaker 2: to wish him a happy Father's Day, and then Nick
Speaker 2: said he went back to sleep.
Speaker 3: But I have evidence that shows that you're lying to me.
Speaker 1: I have phone records that prove that you were at
Speaker 1: a certain place after ten pm and it wasn't home.
Speaker 1: I've talked to Hossey recently, and I know that you
Speaker 1: guys were together after ten pm. I know he didn't
Speaker 1: drive you home at that time, and if he did,
Speaker 1: you guys left again.
Speaker 7: Later earlier I was with him and actually I don't know,
Speaker 7: I know you were with them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you want to know something that's really interesting,
Speaker 1: her phone.
Speaker 3: Shows the same spot. Do you want to know where
Speaker 3: that place is at? At sirtez ssidence? Okay, you were
Speaker 3: there that night?
Speaker 7: Uh, I'm gonna be honest with you, and this is
Speaker 7: this is really the only thing I could remember. We
Speaker 7: had a broken into the house and stole a gun.
Speaker 1: You said, this is at Stevens house, right, yeah, i'd
Speaker 1: you guys get into the house.
Speaker 7: There's a bathroom window that was opened into there, Okay,
Speaker 7: And I honest say, that's the only thing I could
Speaker 7: remember that that might have happened around.
Speaker 5: There at that time.
Speaker 2: So Nick admitted to breaking into the Ortiz's house and
Speaker 2: stealing a gun, but he didn't admit to the murders.
Speaker 3: I know you guys did some stuff after that. We've
Speaker 3: talked to all these people, We've done so much work.
Speaker 3: It's been two years. These people have finally decided to say,
Speaker 3: I don't want to light to us anymore.
Speaker 4: This is what happened.
Speaker 1: So why are these people putting themselves at around the
Speaker 1: Orties residence and saying they were with you? Why would
Speaker 1: they throw themselves under the bus. This doesn't look good
Speaker 1: for you there.
Speaker 7: I just I mean, I want this to be over
Speaker 7: as much as you guys. I I'm tired of having
Speaker 7: to look over my shoulder. I know you guys follow me.
Speaker 8: I'm not done.
Speaker 7: I see you guys, and I'm just I'm tired of it.
Speaker 5: I just wanted to be over.
Speaker 2: After ninety minutes of back and forth, investigators finally had
Speaker 2: Nick cornered, but they weren't expecting what he said next.
Speaker 7: With all due respect to you guys and all that,
Speaker 7: I'd really like to just stop talking and.
Speaker 6: Go on now, Nicholas, when he was in church, William
Speaker 6: never told us a whole lot about any of this.
Speaker 2: John Druhio was the pastor at next church.
Speaker 6: At one point Nicholas did. Nicholas came and says, it
Speaker 6: feels like something's unraveling or coming down the pipe and
Speaker 6: I just need some prayer. And I said, well, what's
Speaker 6: going on? What did you do? What happened? He says, well,
Speaker 6: I can't say anything right now, but can you at
Speaker 6: least can you just pray for me? And you could
Speaker 6: see that he was very troubled, so we prayed with him.
Speaker 6: I kind of had my suspicions that this was because
Speaker 6: of the murders, because you know just how distraught he
Speaker 6: was and how nervous he was, and how scared he was.
Speaker 6: That was a different type of scare. It wasn't like
Speaker 6: a scare you were going to get in trouble for
Speaker 6: wrecking the car or for getting a speeding ticket. This
Speaker 6: was a deep rooted fear that I saw in him.
Speaker 2: In small towns like El Rancho, everybody knew one another,
Speaker 2: and if someone was in trouble, it was public knowledge.
Speaker 6: So at that point, I'm like, Okay, now it's time
Speaker 6: to make sense. Now I can understand that deep, deep,
Speaker 6: deep fear that Nicholas was dealing with, because all of
Speaker 6: this was starting to come ondone.
Speaker 2: In February twenty fifteen, almost four years after the murder's
Speaker 2: police finally put a warn out for Nick or Tea's arrest.
Speaker 2: Shari and Jesse Aretiz, who earlier were thought to be suspects,
Speaker 2: were stunned.
Speaker 6: They were in shock, almost disbelief. He stayed with him,
Speaker 6: know he was part of their family. It's part of
Speaker 6: the church family. We couldn't believe it. I was like
Speaker 6: the Nicholas that's helping out, the Nicholas that's here every night,
Speaker 6: the Nicholas.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 6: I never saw that coming at all.
Speaker 2: Nick Ortiz was charged with three counts of first degree murder.
Speaker 6: Some people were in such disbelief, they're wrong, he didn't
Speaker 6: do it. He didn't do it. Then you had those
Speaker 6: ever sayings. Finally they caught the killer. I knew it
Speaker 6: was him. I knew it was him.
Speaker 2: With a small town divided, Nick Ortiz's trial kicked off
Speaker 2: in the summer of twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: My name is Dan Marlowe. I was hired by Nicholas
Speaker 4: Ortiz's mother and father to represent him on the charges
Speaker 4: of murder.
Speaker 2: The trial was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about
Speaker 2: twenty five miles from the murder scene.
Speaker 4: I've done a lot of a lot of trials, try
Speaker 4: not to overreact to anything, to just be neutral and
Speaker 4: fair and even keeled. But you know, I have to
Speaker 4: say I was uncomfortable, you know, with the large contingent
Speaker 4: of people from l Rancho.
Speaker 2: The l Rancho group was made up of friends and
Speaker 2: neighbors of the victims who wanted to see Nick Ortiz
Speaker 2: locked up for life.
Speaker 4: I was concerned that there was going to be some
Speaker 4: kind of physical confrontation out in the front of the
Speaker 4: courthouse between the Ortiz family and the group from l Rancho.
Speaker 4: So there was some sparks there, definitely.
Speaker 2: It took the police nearly four years to charge Nick
Speaker 2: Ortiz and his lawyer thought the case against him was weak.
Speaker 4: The defendant in this case had a real tight relationship
Speaker 4: with the Ortiz family. He was almost like one of
Speaker 4: their children, and he loved both of them, both Dixie
Speaker 4: and Lloyd, and got along really well with him.
Speaker 2: At the time of the murders, Nick Ortiz was just
Speaker 2: sixteen years old. A scroll through a social media account
Speaker 2: showed a teenager who took a lot of shirtless selfies
Speaker 2: and posted motivational quotes like your future is created by
Speaker 2: what you do today, not tomorrow. But the thing that
Speaker 2: stood out the most in the courtroom was that Nick
Speaker 2: stood just five feet five inches tall. Was he capable
Speaker 2: of pick axing three people to death?
Speaker 4: Wasn't the kind of person that would do something like
Speaker 4: this in my perception, and I believed that he did
Speaker 4: not do it. I believe that he may He may
Speaker 4: have had something to do with planning it or saying, yeah,
Speaker 4: let's go in and get this money, but he did
Speaker 4: not want anything to do with the physicality of killing
Speaker 4: these people.
Speaker 2: At the trial, jurors heard from two witnesses testifying that
Speaker 2: they heard Nick admit to the murders, but one of
Speaker 2: those witnesses was incarcerated at the time of the trial.
Speaker 2: Son Robert also testified. He said he was friends with
Speaker 2: Nick Ortiz and that Nick joined the family on trips.
Speaker 2: They were generous to him. Nick even lived at their
Speaker 2: house for a few months while he was having problems
Speaker 2: at home, but things changed. Just two weeks before the murders,
Speaker 2: Lloyd caught Nick trying to steal from them and kicked
Speaker 2: him out. As heartbreaking as it is to hear Robert's
Speaker 2: testimony against Nick, the prosecution's two key witnesses were cousins
Speaker 2: Ashley and Jose Royball.
Speaker 4: Both of those individuals were cousins, and Jose knew Nicholas.
Speaker 4: They were bros, so to speak, considered themselves to be
Speaker 4: gang members, although there was no gang that they were
Speaker 4: really associated with.
Speaker 2: Ashley testified that the plan was to rob the Ortizes
Speaker 2: of money and marijuana, and that she was simply the
Speaker 2: getaway driver, but her cousin Jose disagreed. He said it
Speaker 2: was Ashley who came up with the idea of murdering
Speaker 2: the Orteases. Although their stories differed, they did agree on
Speaker 2: one thing.
Speaker 4: Both he and Ashley said that Nicholas was the one
Speaker 4: that did it and Jose and Ashley's story did not
Speaker 4: match in any way during the planning, after the commission
Speaker 4: of the crime, all of that which showed me that
Speaker 4: there was some problems there. There was conflicts in the testimony.
Speaker 2: Aside from their stories now matching up, the defense claimed
Speaker 2: both witnesses had some real credibility issues. Ashley was in
Speaker 2: her mid twenties and already had three prior felony convictions
Speaker 2: when she was facing new charges. That's when she decided
Speaker 2: to cooperate with the police and named Nick as the killer.
Speaker 2: The defense pointed out how prosecutors offered Ashley some leniency
Speaker 2: in exchange for testimony.
Speaker 4: And she and Jose were real tight. They were first cousins.
Speaker 4: They had every reason to put the blame on Nicholas
Speaker 4: in order to get out of it, huge motive.
Speaker 2: Jose Roibauld was just fifteen years old at the time
Speaker 2: of the murders, and in exchange for his testimony, he
Speaker 2: received immunity.
Speaker 4: Of course, I'm a naturally suspicious person because I'm a
Speaker 4: defense lawyer, but these are the kind of things that
Speaker 4: I look at. It didn't set right with me.
Speaker 2: The defense argued that there was no physical evidence linking
Speaker 2: Nick Ortez to the murders.
Speaker 4: There was nothing. There was no DNA, no fingerprints, nothing.
Speaker 2: Nick Ortees did not take the stand in his own defense,
Speaker 2: but his parents did. They testified that on the evening
Speaker 2: before Father's Day, they all had dinner together and then
Speaker 2: watched movies. Nick's father said he was in bed just
Speaker 2: after midnight went, Nick came into his bedroom to wish
Speaker 2: him a happy Father's Day. His mother had even more
Speaker 2: to say. She said she saw Nick sleeping on the
Speaker 2: couch when she returned home from work the next morning.
Speaker 4: Basically, they saw him earlier that evening and then they
Speaker 4: didn't see him for a while. Then he was there
Speaker 4: the next morning.
Speaker 2: But even though the intention was to help their son,
Speaker 2: they did him no favors. When they shared this, they
Speaker 2: said Nick never stayed at Shari's house. The only time
Speaker 2: he spent any extended period away from home was with
Speaker 2: a relative. The defense then shifted back to the murder
Speaker 2: victim's daughter, Cherie or Ties.
Speaker 4: Cherie was always complaining about not having any money, always
Speaker 4: whining about it, and her conflict with Lloyd, and the
Speaker 4: fact that she needed money and was willing to do
Speaker 4: anything to get money. That's why I suspected that she
Speaker 4: was part of it, and I still do suspect that,
Speaker 4: and I probably always will.
Speaker 2: The case went to the jury on the Thursday before
Speaker 2: Memorial Day. By the following Wednesday, a week later, the
Speaker 2: jury remained hopelessly deadlocked. Just eight of the twelve jurors
Speaker 2: voted to convict Nick, which resulted in a hung jury.
Speaker 4: Which means a hung jury is a mistrial. Then you
Speaker 4: just retry the case again.
Speaker 2: Six months would pass before Nick Ortiz is retrial. It
Speaker 2: took nearly four years for the police to charge Nick
Speaker 2: Ortiz with murdering Lloyd Dixie and Stephen Ortiz, and after
Speaker 2: a hungery in his first trial, he was retried just
Speaker 2: after Thanksgiving twenty sixteen. Prosecutors painted Nick as a cold
Speaker 2: blooded teenage killer, but the defense claimed that Nick had
Speaker 2: been set up and the real killer was Jose roy Ball.
Speaker 2: Dan Marlowe was Nick's lawyer.
Speaker 4: I believe that Jose was hired to do this killing,
Speaker 4: and I think somebody else came in there and cleaned
Speaker 4: the scene up completely so that there was no prince,
Speaker 4: there was no DNA. It was just was not what
Speaker 4: you would think would happen in a scene like that.
Speaker 2: Although roy Baal freely admitted that he was at the
Speaker 2: scene that night, he was never charged in the Orties's
Speaker 2: case and received immunity in exchange for his testimony against Nick.
Speaker 4: He never spent a day in jail on this, not
Speaker 4: even an hour. He wasn't even a suspect.
Speaker 2: So the defense lawyer told durs that Jose walked around
Speaker 2: free as a bird with blood on his hands.
Speaker 4: There's no way around that, in my opinion. Who knows
Speaker 4: what a jury's going to do?
Speaker 2: Nobody this time. The jury deliberated for two days and
Speaker 2: then returned with a verdict on the three counts of
Speaker 2: first degree murder. They found Nick or Tez guilty. Nick
Speaker 2: buried his head in his hands as his family members
Speaker 2: inside the courtroom burst into tears. Then things got ugly.
Speaker 2: Nick was handcuffed and ushered out of the courtroom. His
Speaker 2: mother shouted profanities at prosecutors and vowed to appeal. The
Speaker 2: prosecutors didn't say a word and just exited the courthouse.
Speaker 2: For Shari Ortiz, the nightmare for her and her family
Speaker 2: was finally over, or was it. About nine months later,
Speaker 2: a district judge reversed Nick Ortiz's conviction. In front of
Speaker 2: a packed courtroom, the judge said there had been a
Speaker 2: fundamental error with the jury instructions in the second trial.
Speaker 2: The courtroom was stunned. Nick Ortiz's family erupted in excitement
Speaker 2: and hugged one another. Even Nick's lawyer was surprised by
Speaker 2: the judge's decision.
Speaker 4: It was highly, highly unusual.
Speaker 2: Schari Ortiz quickly exited without speaking to reporters, and the
Speaker 2: judge never elaborated on what was the fundamental error in
Speaker 2: the jury instructions. He also ordered that Nick betried a
Speaker 2: third time. But then in twenty nineteen, two years later
Speaker 2: and eight years after the murders, the new Mexico State
Speaker 2: Supreme Court struck down the ruling and upheld mixed conviction.
Speaker 2: And here the decision came down to a technicality. Next
Speaker 2: legal team didn't file his appeal within the ten days
Speaker 2: from the time of his conviction. Whether you believe Nick
Speaker 2: is guilty or not, it seems crazy that a lack
Speaker 2: of paperwork is what resulted in him in getting a conviction.
Speaker 2: Defense lawyer Dan Marlowe agrees. He called the decision disgusting
Speaker 2: and cowardly.
Speaker 4: Bothered me a lot.
Speaker 2: As for Nick's former girlfriend, Ashley Royball. She was charged
Speaker 2: with conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon
Speaker 2: and tampering with evidence. As part of her plea deal
Speaker 2: with prosecutors, she'll serve no more than ten and a
Speaker 2: half years in prison. Meanwhile, Nick Ortiz faced up to
Speaker 2: ninety three years behind bars. His lawyer argued that Nick
Speaker 2: needed rehabilitation services like therapy at probation, not prison time.
Speaker 2: The judge disagreed and sentenced Nick to twenty five years
Speaker 2: for each count a first degree murder. But Nick caught
Speaker 2: a break here because the judge allowed Nick to serve
Speaker 2: those sentences concurrently.
Speaker 8: He is given twenty five years and in New Mexico
Speaker 8: he will earn good time.
Speaker 2: TV reporter Alex Tomlin covered the story, so he.
Speaker 8: Will not spend most likely those twenty five years in prison.
Speaker 3: He will be out before that.
Speaker 2: New Mexico's stayed law mandates Nick Ortiz to serve at
Speaker 2: least eighty five percent of his twenty five year sentence
Speaker 2: with good behavior. He could be eligible for paroles sometime
Speaker 2: around the year twenty thirty six, when Nick will be
Speaker 2: in his early forties.
Speaker 8: New Mexico has some interesting sendency laws.
Speaker 2: Seri Ortiz called the sentence a slap in the face
Speaker 2: to her family and the New Mexico justice system. She
Speaker 2: placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the judge,
Speaker 2: said she believes the New Mexico justice system is broken.
Speaker 8: If you're part of the Ortiz family, it's never going
Speaker 8: to be oh, this is and her husband. It's always
Speaker 8: going to be, oh yeah, your parents were murdered. Oh yeah,
Speaker 8: your brother was pickaxe to dad. You know, it's always
Speaker 8: going to follow them, and it's gonna almost kind of
Speaker 8: be like a scarlet letter.
Speaker 2: Today. Shari or Teas and her family still live on
Speaker 2: the property where her parents and brother were slaughtered.
Speaker 8: And I hope for her she's found some peace and
Speaker 8: that that morning doesn't haunt her well.
Speaker 2: Ashley Roibaal and Nick Ortis received time in prison. Jose
Speaker 2: Roibald got off scott free and listened to this. In
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, sharior Tis told a local newspaper that Jose
Speaker 2: had even asked to collect a reward for helping to
Speaker 2: solve the murders.
Speaker 6: It becomes almost every man for themselves, and that's kind
Speaker 6: of what happened in this case. Every man for themselves.
Speaker 2: Pastor John Truvio continues to pray for Shari or Teas
Speaker 2: in the community.
Speaker 6: They are a very loved family in our community, a
Speaker 6: church BACKSM, a community BACKSM. Shari's recently become a grandma
Speaker 6: that house with the healing process it does. But this
Speaker 6: will always be there. It will never ever go away.
Speaker 6: It's hard enough to lose a family member to death,
Speaker 6: but to lose three through murder, That's that's a tough one.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is so, as you can imagine. The father
Speaker 2: Say Holiday continues to be a painful reminder now Rancho
Speaker 2: of the Grizzly murders of twenty eleven.
Speaker 6: This will always stay in our hearts and then our
Speaker 6: mindset that on Father's Day, this horrific crime took place.
Speaker 6: But it didn't have to end this way. It didn't
Speaker 6: if it was a burglary that even went wrong, run.
Speaker 6: But to end the lives of three innocent people like
Speaker 6: this makes no sense at all. I've been passing this
Speaker 6: community for twenty years. We've never experienced or seen anything
Speaker 6: like this, and I pray we never ever do again.
Speaker 2: Next time. On American Homicide, a young woman goes missing
Speaker 2: on the eve of her twenty first birthday. After her
Speaker 2: body turns up, the search for the killer leads detectives
Speaker 2: to one of the most unlikely places, a church. I'm
Speaker 2: Slung Glass. We'll be in Albuquerque, New Mexico. See you
Speaker 2: next week. You can contact the American Homicide team by
Speaker 2: emailing us at American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: That's American Homicide Pod at gmail dot com. American Homicide
Speaker 2: is hosted and written by Me Slung Glass and is
Speaker 2: a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group,
Speaker 2: in partnership with iHeartPodcasts. The show is executive produced by
Speaker 2: Nancy Glass and Todd Gams. The series is also written
Speaker 2: and produced by Todd Gams, with additional writing by Ben
Speaker 2: Fetterman and Andrea Gunny. Our associate producer is Kristin Melcurie.
Speaker 2: Our iHeart tyap is Ali Perry and Jessica Crimecheck. Audio
Speaker 2: editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, additional editing support from
Speaker 2: Nico Ruka Tanner Robbins, Brent Roebashow, Dave Seya, and Patrick Walsh.
Speaker 2: American Homicide's theme song was composed by Oliver Bains of
Speaker 2: Noisier Music library provided by my Music. Follow American Homicide
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