Two brothers who murdered a man during a robbery outside a Perris convenience store were both sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Edgar Sanchez Ortega, 26, and Bryan Ortega, 21, both of Perris, were convicted in October of first-degree murder, robbery, attempted robbery and a special-circumstance allegation of killing in the course of a robbery. Bryan Ortega was additionally found guilty of sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations for the slaying of 25-year-old George Torres of Moreno Valley.
During a hearing Friday at the Riverside Hall of Justice, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jason Armand imposed the sentences required by law on the pair.
According to a trial brief filed by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, the defendants went on a robbery spree that began shortly after 1 a.m. on Nov. 26, 2021, when they spotted a man walking through a field on Wells Street in Perris. Bryan Ortega got out of his brother’s four-door sedan and accosted the victim, shouting, “What’s up, homie?” the brief said.
The victim, identified in court documents only as “M.F.,” later told sheriff’s investigators that he was immediately frozen with fear when the man walked up to him, racked the slide on a 9mm handgun and “pushed the barrel against the side of his head,” court papers said.
“Bryan said, `Strip off all your clothes,”‘ the brief stated. “M.F. hesitated … and when he did that, Bryan struck him with the gun on the side of the head and said, `Get naked. I’m for real. I’ll kill you.’ M.F. therefore complied. Bryan pistol-whipped him again after he took his clothes off, and the victim went down to his knees.”
Ortega grabbed the man’s clothes and mobile phone, which doubled as a wallet, and jumped back into his brother’s car, then the pair sped away, prosecutors said. M.F. walked to a Circle K and sought help.
Only 20 minutes later, the defendants drove to an am/pm convenience store/gas station at 4040 Perris Blvd. and began inhaling drugs or vapors via balloons while sitting in Edgar Ortega’s vehicle, according to the prosecution. The men saw Torres pull into the parking lot in his Honda sedan and decided to rob him and his male friend, identified only as “J.N.”
After J.N. got out of the passenger side of the Honda and went into the store to buy cigarettes, Edgar Ortega backed his sedan into the parking stall immediately adjacent to the victim’s car.
When J.N. returned and sat down in the Honda, Bryan Ortega stepped out of his brother’s vehicle, pulled his 9mm handgun and told J.N. and Torres, who was at the wheel, “Give me everything you got,” according to the brief.
J.N. complied, handing over his cigarettes and cash, but Torres refused, prompting Ortega to demand that the victim hand over his sunglasses. The young man balked and instead grabbed a pistol that he’d hidden in the Honda and fired at Ortega, who “then began shooting into the car multiple times,” the brief said.
Torres was hit by several bullets and died at the scene. J.N. was not wounded. The defendants fled as witnesses called 911.
Central Homicide Unit detectives reviewed storefront security surveillance camera images that morning and quickly identified the brothers as the assailants, also linking them to the assault and robbery of M.F., culminating in the men’s arrests without incident at a Santa Ana hotel the same day.
Neither defendant had documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
These days. Yes they deserve life in prison. I wish death on no one. But in prison, they may wish they were dead.