LOS ANGELES (AP) — Florida woman accused of driving across country to visit shoot a gun at Rihanna and A$AP Rocky’s househitting a trailer the celebrity couple was in and a daycare where their children were, was indicted by a grand jury on 14 counts, including attempted murder.
The indictment against Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, 36, of Orlando, was unsealed Wednesday by a Los Angeles County judge.
Ortiz, appearing in court dressed in yellow jail clothes, spoke only to her attorney, who entered a not guilty plea for her. The judge then ordered him held on $2.6 million bail.
The ruling came a day after another judge ruled that Ortiz was mentally competent to stand trial. The secret grand jury proceeding took place while Ortiz was undergoing months of psychiatric evaluation. Jurors returned their indictment on June 18, but it remained secret for three months until the judge ruled on its jurisdiction. Now, a case that seemed stalled — perhaps permanently — is on track to go to trial.
No one was injured in the March 8 shooting. Authorities say Ortiz drove a Tesla to the gates of the singing superstar and his rap star partner’s Beverly Hills-area estate, A$AP Rockypointed an AR-15 style rifle out the window and fired at least 20 rounds towards the property and the neighboring house.
“This is a person who wanted to kill Rihanna,” Assistant Prosecutor Alexander Bott said in court. “Everyone else was collateral damage.”
Bullets tore through the Airstream trailer, according to a police report. Gunshots also hit the wall of the nursery in their home, where their three young children were with their nanny. Rihanna’s mother and several staff members were also present in the house, and authorities say she also shot up a neighbor’s house.
Rihanna and her mother, Monica Fenty, testified before the grand jury, as did Hollywood agent Tracey Jacobs, the owner of the house next door who was home at the time and who is among the victims in the indictment.
Their testimony remains under seal but will be made public in about two weeks, unless the defense seeks to keep it secret and the judge agrees.
Rihanna told investigators right after the shooting that she “suddenly heard about ten loud noises like something was hitting metal,” and pulled Rocky off a bed and onto the floor. She said she opened the curtains and saw bullet marks on the windshield directly in front of where she was standing.
Assistant Public Defender Derek Dillman, Ortiz’s attorney, did not speak to reporters outside the courtroom, and a message seeking comment from the public defender’s office on the indictment was not immediately responded to. Aside from his not guilty plea, his lawyers have not publicly addressed the charges, saying only that they would work to defend his rights.
Investigators said that on the day of his arrest, Ortiz told them, “I wasn’t trying to murder.” »
Ortiz was indicted on very similar charges in March. The new indictment supersedes those charges. Secret grand jury proceedings allow prosecutors to avoid the preliminary hearing process in California, where evidence must be presented publicly to see if a trial is warranted.
The indictment also charges Ortiz with 10 counts of assault with an assault weapon — one for each person at the two properties — and three counts of shooting into an inhabited dwelling or RV. He names the couple’s three children Rza, Riot and Rocki, all under the age of 5, as victims. The assault weapons charges carry a harsher sentence than the original charges of assault with a semi-automatic firearm. Ortiz was the registered owner of the rifle, which she obtained in Florida, authorities said.
She could face life in prison if convicted on all counts.
Reports were sealed on the psychiatric evaluations that put the case on hold shortly after it began, and there was no public discussion of the details of his mental state.
Prosecutors have said nothing about motive or cited any connection between Rihanna and Ortiz, a longtime licensed speech therapist. But in videos posted to Facebook and YouTube in the months before the shooting, Ortiz made increasingly angry comments toward Rihanna, sometimes taking the form of threats, at one point calling her a “devil.”
A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Rihanna has had 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Disturbia.”
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