YUBA COUNTY, Calif. — An Olivehurst man pleaded guilty to murder Monday after he shot and killed a 10-year-old earlier this year.
According to the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office, 31-year-old Juan Martin Ortiz will be sentenced Sept. 18 and he’s facing 35 years to life.
The charge stems from a deadly shooting on Feb. 5, 2023, that left 10-year-old Frank Rosiles dead.
CASE HISTORY
The Yuba County Sheriff’s Office took a 911 call from a driver around 7:40 p.m. on Feb. 5 reporting shots fired from a black car driving northbound on Highway 70 towards Marysville.
Two minutes later a second person called 911 from a home on Alicia Avenue in Olivehurst to report a shooting.
Upon arrival, deputies found a crowd of people screaming in front of a home and 10-year-old Frankie Rosiles lying on the ground with a gunshot wound in his abdomen.
He was taken by ambulance to Adventist Rideout where he was pronounced dead at 8:17 p.m.
As Yuba County deputies were on their way to the scene of the shooting, Marysville police were called about a hit-and-run on E Street. The driver later abandoned the vehicle near 7th and Pine and ran towards a Save Mart.
Officers found a .380 caliber pistol inside and blood in the vehicle. Around 8 p.m. an officer saw a man run across the street with a large amount of blood on his sweatshirt. The man, Juan Ortiz, was detained and arrested.
As officers were searching Ortiz, they found a key to the abandoned vehicle, a gunshot to his right forearm, and that he was heavily intoxicated.
An investigation found Rosiles didn’t live at the home where he was shot but he spent a lot of time there with his cousins and uncle Michael Ramirez Sr. Detectives found Ortiz fathered a child with Ramirez Sr.’s niece, Mariah.
Ortiz was dropping Mariah off at Ramirez’s home when the two began fighting, causing Ramirez to come outside and beat Ortiz unconscious. Ortiz’s nephew drove off and came back for him.
Ortiz and his nephew drove back to the home on Alicia Avenue and gunfire erupted between Ortiz and the people inside. One of the bullets Ortiz fired hit the front door and a ping-pong table before fatally striking Rosiles.
“I am deeply saddened at the loss of Frankie,” said Yuba County District Attorney Clint Curry. “It is bad enough when adults resort to violence to settle their disputes, but it is unforgivable when they kill an innocent child in the process.”
