Embry-Riddle student's death determined a suicide, not murder, police say
The Daytona Beach Police Department has again reviewed the 2020 fatal shooting of an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University student and reached the same conclusion as before: Alexander Bello-Ortiz’s death was a suicide.
Bello-Ortiz’s family had asked police last year to reopen the case. The family also filed a federal lawsuit last year against Bello-Ortiz’s roommate, ERAU student John Burlein, accusing him of killing Bello-Ortiz and covering up the crime with the help of his father, Joseph Burlein.
But the police department told The News-Journal that it had completed the review of the case, including new evidence provided by the family, and still classified the death as a suicide: Bello-Ortiz shot himself.
“We have closed this case. The cause of death was ruled a suicide by the medical examiner’s office and our investigation supports those findings,” wrote Daytona Beach Police Sgt. Tim Ehrenkaufer in an email.
And in a recorded phone call provided by police, John Burlein denies killing Bello-Ortiz while speaking with ERAU student Henry Lax.
What happened to Alexander Bello-Ortiz?
Bello-Ortiz, 22, was found with a gunshot wound to the head on Sept. 6, 2020, in his bedroom at 941 Vernon St., according to a police report. A rifle was found on the floor nearby and a single .22-caliber shell casing was found about 4 feet from a pool of blood, a police report stated.
Bello-Ortiz was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach where he died.
Ortiz was an Eagle Scout who studied electrical engineering and planned to work as an engineer for NASA, the lawsuit stated.
Police reopen case into student's death: Daytona Beach Police reopen 2020 case of ERAU student's suicide
Both Bello-Ortiz and John Burlein were members of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps.
Bello-Ortiz’s mother, Maria Lourdes Ortiz, and stepfather, Harold William Dolph, filed a federal lawsuit last year in Orlando against John Burlein and his father, Joseph Burlein.
Attorney Richard W. Smith of Nejame Law in Orlando represents the Burleins and did not respond to The News-Journal's attempts to contact him.
Terence Lenamon and Daniel Schwarz represent Ortiz and Dolph; they did not return emails from The News-Journal.
Ortiz did not return a text from The News-Journal seeking comment.
John Burlein did not respond to a text from The News-Journal.
Ortiz was originally represented by Kendall Coffey and then by Attorney John Phillips of Jacksonville. Phillips represented Ortiz when the family and supporters held a press conference in front of the Daytona Beach Police Department in March to call attention to the case.
The lawsuit also named Lax, Gregory Lynn Trax, Brenden Tyler Rubio and Robert Kramer as defendants. But all defendants except the Burleins have since been dismissed from the lawsuit. Kramer was an ERAU student and a roommate of Ortiz and John Burlein. Trax and Rubio were acquaintances of John Burlein, the lawsuit stated.
Bello-Ortiz and John Burlein were the only two people in the house at the time of the shooting, the lawsuit states.
Mother demands investigation: Mother says son, an ERAU student, was killed and police have not arrested suspect
Instead of calling 911 for medical help, John Burlein first called his father, Joseph Burlein, a retired Air Force captain, according to the lawsuit. John Burlein waited more than five minutes before calling 911 to "falsely report" that Ortiz had "collapsed," the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit, Ring cameras recorded the following exchange between John Burlein, 22 at the time, and a person believed to be Joseph Burlein on speaker phone.
“Did you (expletive) kill him?”
“I did.”
"(Expletive)."
“What if he’s not dead?”
“Alex is dead.”
Report was inaccurate
Jennifer Owen of Owen Forensic Services LLC examined the audio at the request of Bello-Ortiz’s family. Owen writes she has served as an expert witness in audio clarification in several states, including Florida, and has developed an ear for such work.
The Owen Forensic report dated Dec. 15, 2022, states it enhanced the audio and includes a transcription, which in one spot states:
“Did you (expletive) __?”
“I did.”
"(Expletive)."
“What if he’s not dead?”
“Alex is dead.”
Another portion of the report includes the word "kill."
"Did you (expletive) kill him?"
"I did."
"(Expletive)."
"I didn't do __.""What if he's not dead?"
"Alex is dead."
But in a phone call with The News-Journal Friday, Owen said those quotes were from a preliminary report that never should have been released. She said the preliminary report was "inaccurate."
Owen said her final report did not contain any of that dialogue.
She declined to say how the transcription got in the preliminary report and said it was a draft report based on notes.
She said she no longer works for the Ortiz family.
No new evidence found
The police department requested in January 2023 that the FDLE review the recordings enhanced by Owen Forensic. Orange County Sheriff’s Office Detective Peter Hernandez, a member of an FDLE task force who is assigned to such duties, performed the review.
Hernandez wrote that no new additional evidence was found.
“While listening to the enhanced audio I was not able to recognize what was being said. Even when reading the provided text as the audio played, I still found it difficult to interpret what was being said to what was transcribed. I also had other members of FDLE listen to the enhanced audio. They were unable to distinguish the sounds they were hearing or interpret it as speech,” Hernandez wrote.
Hernandez reviewed audios of the case in August 2022 when he wrote he was unable to find anything.
“Although what is being heard sounds like a conversation, the isolation and enhancement of it did not make it clearly intelligible,” the lab report states.
No mention of gun on 911 call
The police department also provided a recording of the 911 call made by a calm and unemotional John Burlein.
“My roommate just collapsed. His bleeding from one ear and his nose,” John Burlein tells the dispatcher.
Burlein said Bello-Ortiz was breathing “very shallow.”
Burlein said Bello-Ortiz was cleaning before he became unconscious. The dispatcher asked if Bello-Ortiz was using any chemicals, like bleach. Burlein said no.
Burlein tried to determine if Bello-Ortiz was breathing. He at first said no, but then said yes. A man named Robert arrived and tried to help determine if Bello-Ortiz was breathing.
They decided that Bello-Ortiz was not breathing and said they were starting CPR.
Burlein does not mention during the 911 call anything about a gun or a gunshot.
Neither does Robert, but he said there was a lot of blood.
One of the responding paramedics later notices the gun, a black .22-caliber rifle.
Burlein denies killing Bello-Ortiz
Records included Henry Lax in Burlein's and Bello-Ortiz's group of friends or acquaintances.
In a recorded phone call after the lawsuit was filed, Lax asked Burlein about the rifle.
“When you found Alex, you remember like where the gun was, where like, if you saw the gun?" Lax said.
“The medics found it,” Burlein said.
Burlein said the gun was lying “kind of like” in the shadow of a dresser.
Lax went to the house later after paramedics responded.
“I remember seeing it, but I didn’t know if you saw it,” Lax said.
“I don’t really know if I saw it or not when, I don’t think I saw it when I walked in,” John Burlein said. “At least, I definitely didn’t recognize it. It’s not like I walked in and ‘Oh, that’s a gun.’ I walked in and ‘Oh my roommate is on the floor.’”
Later, the topic of the gun comes up again.
“The EMTs found it when they were working on him when they came in,” Burlein said. “So, I had already kind of at least known there was a gun there, but it was kind of like, you know, it’s got to be a coincidence, you know, there’s no way he would have done this. That would be silly.”
Lax then poses the most important question to John Burlein.
“It would make me feel a whole lot better if I could just ask you something that you don’t take offense to,” Lax said, “but, like cause you and him were the only ones there, like did you kill Alex?
John Burlein responds: “Ah, no.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Embry-Riddle student wasn't murdered, police say; death ruled a suicide
