By Scott Sullivan
Editor
A man who turned himself in to police this spring at a Ganges church was sentenced last Thursday to decades in prison for murdering his girlfriend.
Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 26, asked for mercy in Kent County Circuit Court after pleading guilty to killing Ruby Garcia, 25, in Grand Rapids March 22.
Michigan State Police said he dumped her body by the U.S. 131 roadside, fled in her car and turned himself in two days later while attending a service at Ganges United Methodist Church.
Judge Mark Trusock sentenced Ortiz-Vite to at least 37 years in prison for second-degree murder, 20-80 years for carjacking, 3-5 years for carrying a concealed weapon and two years for felony firearms instead.
Police said Ortiz-Vite shot Garcia in her car, got out, shot her in the head again, unbuckled his girlfriend, dumped her body on the highway shoulder and fled the scene.
Her killing grabbed national headlines and fueled political debate because of Ortiz-Vite’s status.
He had entered the U.S. illegally and was approved to stay under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but that status expired in 2019. An immigration judge ordered his removal the next year, but Ortiz-Vite returned to the U.S. undetected and ended up in Grand Rapids.
Ganges UMC Pastor Marcia Tucker recalled a young man wandering into the building through a door left unlocked and chatting with him for about 20 minutes.
Tucker told Allegan County News writer Gari Voss he was extremely upset and rambled about going through hard times — he had lost his job, been in a fight and kicked out of where he was living. His family would not take him back after all he’d done.
“I prayed with him,” said Tucker. “Then I could tell he was done talking.
“But I never knew what his problem was.”
Ortiz-Vite made a call that night from church phone but no one came to pick him up, so Tucker offered him a place to sleep in the annex.
Parishioners found him still there the next morning. He joined them distributing palms, then sat at the back of back of the church during ceremonies.
“We treated him as a visitor at our church, the way God would want us to do,” the pastor said.
Ortiz-Vite then left the service, reported himself to police, threw his gun out into the church front yard and waited to be arrested.
Reading from a prepared statement Thursday, Ortiz-Vite told Trusock he took responsibility for what he did and felt shame but made no excuses.
The judge was short with him handing down judgment, saying Ortiz-Vite is a danger and must be removed from society.
He will serve his sentence in a Michigan prison before his immigration is reviewed, should be paroled.
