Don't mix a day of drinking and an evening of cocaine with a machete and a knife!

2014-M-273       Danny Ortega, Jr., petitioner, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.

THE CRIME:  Troy Ulrich lived in an apartment in Claremont.  Ortega, Jr. lived across the hall with his grandfather.  Ortega's girlfriend (Marissa Lane) and his father (Ortega, Sr.) often visited Ortega.

On February 15, 2008, Ortega threw a card party for his friends and extended family.  When the ran out of beer, they asked Ulrich to join them.  Ulrich shared his beer and they shared their cocaine. 

Ortega ordered the one-armed Ulrich to leave the apartment and brandished a machete.  Ortega pursued Ulrich to the garage, where he was stabbed to death.  Ortega hauled the body back to the apartment lobby.  The next morning, several residents complained to police about the body in the hallway.

Following a jury trial, the district court convicted Danny Ortega, Jr. of aiding and abetting first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of release. 

We affirmed Ortega’s conviction on direct appeal.  State v. Ortega (Ortega I), 798 N.W.2d 59 (Minn. 2011).  Ortega confessed to stabbing Ulrich to two different detectives on two different days.

THIS APPEAL:  Ortega subsequently filed a petition for post-conviction relief, alleging that Eric Bermea, who testified as an eyewitness at the trial, provided false testimony and had recanted that testimony.  The post-conviction court summarily denied the petition.  Because the allegedly false testimony was cumulative to other compelling evidence and the outcome of the proceedings would not have been different had the testimony not been admitted at trial, we affirm.

Because the record establishes that even without the recanted testimony, the jury would not have reached a different result at trial, the post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion when it denied appellant’s request for a new trial without holding an evidentiary hearing on his witness-recantation claim.

Affirmed.

Gildea (Page, Anderson, Dietzen, Stras, Wright, and Lillehaug)

[MURDER] [GILDEA]

A14-171,