Honduran Deportee Now Charged With Capital Murder in Theft of Car

MCALLEN, Texas — Police arrested a previously deported illegal immigrant in connection with the beating of a local man to steal his car. The Honduran national is now facing capital murder charges after the victim died.

As Breitbart Texas initially reported, on January 30, McAllen Police responded to a car crash where the vehicle had landed in an irrigation canal. At the scene, witnesses told police that the driver had run away. Police officers went to the house listed on the vehicle’s registration. Outside of the house, authorities found a 56-year-old man who had been brutally beaten and rushed him to a local hospital. Officials reported the man to be in critical condition. Authorities believe that the Honduran illegal immigrant assaulted the victim at his home in an attempt to steal his vehicle. Authorities identified the suspect as 31-year-old Andres Roberto Ortiz, a previously deported illegal immigrant from Honduras.

After several days in critical condition, the victim died. Prosecutors upgraded the charges against the Honduran man from aggravated assault to capital murder, information provided to Breitbart Texas by McAllen Police revealed. With the new charges, the suspect’s bond is set at $2 million. 

When authorities initially identified the suspect, they learned federal authorities had him in custody in an unrelated case. Agents with the U.S. Border Patrol arrested the suspect and turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.  The immigration officers were scheduling his deportation. McAllen Police contacted ICE and had the man sent to this city where prosecutors charged him for his alleged role in the robbery. Under Texas law, capital murder is punishable by either a sentence of life in prison sentence or death by lethal injection, following conviction.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.