A Dominican court docket convicted 10 individuals concerned within the 2019 tried killing of baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.
Ortiz, a Dominican native, was ambushed by a person who obtained off a bike and shot him within the again at shut vary whereas the previous Red Sox slugger was at a bar with mates in a well-off neighborhood of Santo Domingo.
Two males, together with the alleged shooter Rolfi Ferreyra Cruz, had been every sentenced to 30 years in jail by Santo Domingo’s First Collegiate Court.
Eight others acquired jail sentences of between 5 and 20 years. Three different defendants had been acquitted because of inadequate proof, together with Víctor Hugo Gómez Vásquez, who was accused of planning the assault.
American non-public investigators employed by Ortiz mentioned that the slugger affectionately often called Big Papi was focused by a Dominican drug trafficker who was jealous of him.
The findings by former Boston police commissioner Edward Davis contradicted a earlier concept by legislation enforcement within the Dominican Republic that the hitman was truly employed to shoot Ortiz’s cousin Sixto David Fernandez, who was sitting on the similar desk.
Dominican authorities mentioned the hitmen confused Fernandez with Ortiz, one of many nation’s most beloved ballplayers.
Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos by way of Getty Images
A fearsome energy hitter with a prepared smile, Ortiz led the Red Sox to a few World Series championships, was a 10-time All-Star and hit 541 house runs earlier than retiring in 2016. When he was shot, he was dwelling a part of the yr within the Dominican Republic.
Ortiz was significantly wounded within the June 2019 capturing. Doctors within the Dominican Republic eliminated Ortiz’s gallbladder and a part of his gut after the capturing and he underwent additional surgical procedure within the U.S.
Among the crimes for which the ten males had been sentenced had been legal group, use of unlawful firearms, tried homicide, and complicity, the court docket wrote in a press release.
Authorities famous that extra particulars of the sentencing will probably be launched on Feb. 8, 2023.
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