Vernon man gets 2 years in Glastonbury vehicle theft

Alex Wood, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
·3 min read

Sep. 8—A man charged in the theft of a running vehicle from the Glastonbury Home Depot parking lot after police publicized a photo of him holding hands with a woman in the store has been sentenced to a total of two years in prison for that and six other crimes.

SETTLEMENT

DEFENDANT: Michael A. Ortiz, 33, who has listed an address on West Street in Vernon.

CONVICTIONS: Third-degree larceny in Feb. 2 theft of running vehicle from parking lot of Home Depot in Glastonbury. Second-degree larceny, third-degree larceny, two third-degree burglaries, violating a family violence protective order, and second-degree failure to appear in court in other cases.

TOTAL SENTENCE: Six years, suspended after two years in prison, followed by three years of probation.

Michael A. Ortiz, 33, who has listed an address on West Street in Vernon, was convicted of a reduced felony charge of third-degree larceny and sentenced to 18 months in prison for the Glastonbury vehicle theft in a Manchester Superior Court plea bargain, online records show.

He had originally been charged with first-degree larceny and other crimes in the Feb. 2 theft of a running Honda CR-V from the Home Depot parking lot.

The online records show that Ortiz was sentenced Friday in Manchester Superior Court.

But what actually happened, according to his lawyer, Leon Kaatz, is that Ortiz had been sentenced earlier in Manchester and two other Connecticut courts, where he was facing unrelated charges, and the judges "stayed" imposition of the sentences.

After Ortiz was sentenced Friday in New Britain Superior Court for a second-degree larceny, the judges in the other courts dissolved the stays, and all the sentences took effect.

That is a common practice in Connecticut, designed to make sure that a defendant gets credit against all his sentences for the time he has spent in jail while the cases were pending.

Kaatz said Ortiz will get credit for all his jail time. He has been in jail since April 22, according to online state Department of Correction records.

Kaatz also said all Ortiz's sentences are to run concurrent to one another.

As a result, the controlling sentence will be the longest one, the two-year prison term he received in the New Britain court for the second-degree larceny. He will be on probation for three years after his release from prison, with the possibility of up to four more years behind bars for any violation of release conditions.

The other crimes covered by the "global settlement" of Ortiz's cases were a third-degree larceny in Hartford, two third-degree burglaries for which he was prosecuted in Vernon Superior Court, a violation of a family violence protective order in Vernon, and a failure to appear in Vernon Superior Court.

In the Glastonbury incident, two people were seen walking around the Home Depot parking lot looking into vehicles, then getting into a running Honda CR-V and driving off, police said at the time.

The vehicle was recovered in New Britain three days after it was stolen, police have said.

In investigating the case, Glastonbury police publicized a high-quality surveillance photo of a man and a woman holding hands in Home Depot, saying they were the people who later stole the vehicle.

Subsequently arrested in the theft were Ortiz and Michelle A. Rivera, 35, of Grand Avenue in Vernon.

Rivera is being held in lieu of $225,000 bond while facing that and two other cases in Vernon Superior Court, online records show.

For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1, Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.