Chapter 4
ANCHOR Welcome back to ANN, the network serving you all the news and views without prejudice or partisanship.
We’re going live to Washington, DC, the northern district law courts, where a grand jury deliberating the charges against Luka Ortiz has just issued its decision.
Our Capitol Correspondent Joshua Feldstein is there.
Joshua, what has been decided about any potential trial for this young man, the only child of Representative Sandra Ortiz?
FELDSTEIN Thank you, Maritza. Yes, today comes the long-awaited ruling of a grand jury on whether Luka Ortiz should stand trial, and if so, on what charges.
This case has moved remarkably rapidly in the past three months, since a man was grievously injured and a young woman subsequently found dead in Bittershore Nature Preserve, Connecticut.
We don’t have the details but circumstances suggested a ritual, perhaps magical.
Sensationally, in what prosecutors say is a third murder attempt, Luka Ortiz was apprehended in woods near Bittershore after – they allege – wounding a young woman, a fellow student at Cawden College.
ANCHOR There was something interesting about who found him, is that right?
FELDSTEIN That’s correct. The reported sequence of events of that night is that Ortiz was first interrupted by a magical practitioner named Sarah Fenn, the registered witch of nearby Sanctuary, whose daughter was at the centre of witchcrime allegations last year.
Next on the scene was DI Maggie Knight, the detective tasked with investigating Sanctuary, who ultimately concluded that case was one not of magical murder or witchcraft but rather simple, old-fashioned hysteria.
Knight and Fenn would be key witnesses in any trial.
Will be key witnesses, I can now say, for it has been confirmed that a trial is indeed going ahead.
ANCHOR That’s not the outcome Sandra Ortiz will have wanted, Joshua. Can you tell us the nature of the charges he’ll be facing, and what that tells us about this case?
FELDSTEIN Absolutely. Luka Ortiz has been charged with two counts of grievous wounding and one count of depraved-heart murder, a category of second-degree murder.
This charge is used when it’s thought a suspect knowingly commits acts against people likely to result in harm, but without intending them to die.
And as magical means are alleged, it will be treated as witchcrime.
ANCHOR Second-degree murder. Does that avoid the automatic death penalty, which was the most notorious aspect of the accusations in the Sanctuary case?
FELDSTEIN What you call the ‘Sanctuary case’ never came to trial, of course, Maritza.
The conclusion was that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a prosecution.
But had it done so, yes, conviction would have automatically triggered capital punishment.
That is not the case in this instance. In fact, Luka will be eligible for bail, although that’s likely to be under stringent conditions, and is at the judge’s discretion.
ANCHOR Do we have any sense of the strategy or response of the Ortiz camp to this announcement, Joshua?
FELDSTEIN I imagine an announcement with be forthcoming very soon.
But we already know the key contention of the Ortiz defence, which is that Luka is in fact another victim.
Sandra Ortiz has maintained from the start – if you remember the statement released very swiftly after the arrest – that if her son had any involvement at all, he was coerced.
Essentially that he was magically controlled by another witch, or witches.
‘The magical community … have come for my son,’ were the words she used then.
ANCHOR And do we have any idea who or what that accusation refers to?
FELDSTEIN Not so far, Maritza, but I’m sure the defence team will waste no time telling us who they think is behind these crimes.