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Valley Stream man gets 35 years for fatal shooting

Ortiz sentenced for 2013 killing of Queens resident

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The Valley Stream man convicted in December of fatally shooting a Queens resident outside a Valley Stream restaurant in 2013 was sentenced to 35 years in prison on May 8.

A jury found Orlando Ortiz, 32, guilty of first-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon after a trial that lasted six and a half weeks. Ortiz was convicted of shooting nine times into a vehicle in which Richard Baccus, 50, of Rosedale, sat just before midnight on Dec. 23, 2013, in the parking lot of Ay! Caramba restaurant.

The two men had been drinking inside and got into an argument, police said. Witnesses told the jury they saw the men arguing at the bar before Ortiz “angrily followed the victim to his car,” according to then-District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

Nassau County Court Judge William Donnino sentenced Ortiz, who faced up to 40 years, to 25 years for manslaughter and 10 years for the weapons charge. The sentences are to run consecutively.

“This defendant shot an unarmed man multiple times as he sat in his car, unable to defend himself,” Acting D.A. Madeline Singas said last week. “This cruel act of wanton violence will now be met with equally strong consequence — a prison sentence for more years than the defendant has been living. I thank the police and prosecutors who worked so hard to bring this defendant to justice, and the jury and the judge for their careful consideration of the case.”

Defense attorney Stephen Drummond argued that his client mistakenly believed that a flashlight that Baccus was holding was a gun that Baccus was pointing at him. The two men had argued over whether Baccus was a bounty hunter, police said. A badge that was determined to be fake was recovered from his vehicle.

Baccus’s eldest daughter, Renita Baccus, 25, of Queens, spoke at the sentencing, Newsday reported. She spoke about how her father’s death has impacted her family, her mother crying for months afterward and her younger sister graduating from high school and going to college without the father “who was everything to us.”

Ortiz also made a statement, Newsday reported: “I just want everyone to know that I’m deeply sorry.”

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Brian Lee, deputy chief of Singas’s County Court Trial Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Timothy McNutt. Ortiz is represented by JoAnn Squillice.