Murder conviction tossed for man accused of strangling girlfriend with phone cord
Updated Feb 26, 2021;
Posted Feb 26, 2021
Carlos Ortiz was sentenced to life in prison for the 2016 killing of girlfriend Rufina Castro in their Ewing home. His conviction was reversed Friday.
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Appellate court judges have reversed the conviction of a man sentenced to life in prison for strangling his girlfriend after finding an error in instructions given to the jury.
Carlos Ortiz, 55, was convicted of murder in the August 2016 killing of Rufina Castro, 51, following an argument at their Ewing home.
Ortiz smashed a beer bottle over the woman’s head, strangled her with a cellphone charging cord and hid her body before fleeing to a Belleville motel, authorities said. When he was arrested, Ortiz had Castro’s credit and debit cards, and some of her jewelry, authorities said.
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Police investigate the scene of a double shooting at the Sunoco just off Route 29 in Trenton Monday evening. One person was killed and another is still hospitalized. Photo: Rich Hundley III.
Khalil Griffin-Gibbs, a 2014 graduate of West Windsor Plainsboro High South who played varsity basketball when he was a student, died Monday night after being shot in Trenton.
The murder is the first killing in Trenton in 2021. The capital city saw a record 40 murders last year but had gone more than two months without another one until this week.
At about 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Trenton police responded to 110 Sanhican Drive on reports that two people were shot. When they arrived, officers discovered Griffin-Gibbs and another man who had been shot in front of the Sunoco Service Station. Both men were transported to the hospital.
Man killed in Trenton gas station shooting, another critical with gunshot to the face
Updated Feb 26, 2021;
A West Windsor man shot at a gas station just off Route 29 in Trenton Monday night died of his wounds a few hours later while a second man shot in the face remains hospitalized with critical injuries, authorities said.
Khalil Gibbs, 25, was killed in the shooting and a 20-year-old from Trenton was wounded, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said Tuesday.
No arrests or charges have been announced in the 6:30 p.m. shooting at the Sunoco gas station on Sanhican Drive.
No theories or motives for the shooting were made public by the prosecutor’s office, whose Homicide Task Force is investigating.