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A former Border Patrol agent has been sentenced to life in prison after he admitted to killing four sex workers in Texas back in 2018.

39-year-old Juan David Ortiz was a Border Patrol intel supervisor before his arrest. He confessed to killing 29-year-old Melissa Ramirez, 42-year-old Claudine Anne Luera, 35-year-old Guiselda Alicia Canut, and 28-year-old Janelle Ortiz. Apparently Ortiz had been a customer of most of these women, but had a disdain for sex workers and wanted to "clean up the streets."

31-year-old Erika Pena testified that Ortiz had picked her up in his truck back on September 14th of 2018. She said he told her that he was the "next to last person" to have sex with Ramirez, who had been found dead a week prior. Ortiz said he was worried investigators would find his DNA on Ramirez's body, so Pena suspected that he was the one who had killed all those women.

After Ortiz allegedly pointed a gun at Pena, she escaped from his truck at a gas station and ran to the state trooper that was refueling the vehicle. Ortiz fled the scene but was tracked to a hotel parking garage the morning after and arrested.

Juan David Ortiz, Webb County Sheriff's Office
Juan David Ortiz, Webb County Sheriff's Office
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Bullets found from the crime scenes were said to have all come from the same gun, and they matched the one found in Ortiz's truck.

In Ortiz's trial, defense attorneys argued that he was improperly induced to make a confession and that is shouldn't be considered. They went on to argue that since he was a Navy veteran who had been deployed to Iraq, he suffered from PTSD, insomnia, nightmares and headaches on top of being medicated and drinking.

However, the Associated Press says that prosecutors argued the confession was legal, being provided by an educated senior law enforcement official who was not having a mental breakdown.

Ortiz was convicted on Wednesday, December 8th of capital murder and will receive an automatic life sentence without parole.

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