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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Thursday, September 25, 2003

Shooter gets 15 years to life in prison for murder

Advertiser Staff

A 26-year-old man was sentenced yesterday to a prison term of 15 years to life for the Dec. 28 murder in the shooting of a homeless man at Ala Wai baseball field.

Circuit Judge Richard Perkins told Annibal Ortiz he could find "no mitigating circumstances" that would have caused Ortiz to shoot Odin Ortiz to death in the bleachers at the baseball field. The two men were not related.

Annibal Ortiz maintained during his trial that it was a case of mistaken identity and that he was at least a mile away when the shooting took place. But a police ballistics expert said that a bullet test-fired from a gun that was recovered near Annibal Ortiz when he was arrested in Nanakuli two days after the shooting matched with a bullet recovered from the victim's body.

Eye witnesses who testified during the trial also identified Annibal Ortiz as the shooter.

In addition to the life sentence, Perkins set a mandatory minimum term of 15 years for Ortiz. It will be up to the Hawai'i Paroling Authority to decide how much of the life sentence, beyond the mandatory term, Ortiz must serve before he is eligible for parole.