Ten Men Convicted In Attempted Assassination Of Boston Red Sox Legend David Ortiz

LOJSports |

Dec 28, 2022

A Dominican court convicted ten people for various charges, including the attempted murder of Major League Baseball star David Ortiz on Monday.

The court handed down prison sentences that spanned from five to thirty years for the shooting that happened back in 2019 in Ortiz’s hometown of East Santo Domingo.

At the time, Ortiz was shot in the back while visiting a bar in the area. He underwent multiple surgeries in the Dominican Republic and back in the United States and survived the shooting.

The longtime Boston Red Sox legend was not the intended target, according to police. After an investigation police said that Ortiz was mistaken for someone else and shot due to mistaken identity.

However, despite that conclusion, the ten suspects were convicted for attempting to murder Ortiz. On Tuesday, the Dominican Republic’s Office of Attorney General said that the convictions included charges of attempted murder, conspiring and using illegal firearms and associating with criminals.

Eddy Vladimir Feliz Garcia, 26, and Rolfi Ferreras Cruz, 27, were sentenced to 30 years “for their direct participation in the assassination attempt.” Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota, 28, was sentenced to 20 years for allegedly paying “those who carried out the act.”

The other seven men received less than 10 years and were ordered to pay 50 million pesos in damages, according to the Attorney General.

Three other people, who were initially accused of being part of the alleged plan, were acquitted due to insufficient evidence, including the suspect accused of being the alleged mastermind behind the plot.

Back in the fall of 2021, one of the men accused of plotting to kill Ortiz, was gunned down and killed in broad daylight after a car chase, according to police in the Dominican Republic. The man, Luis Alfredo Rivas-Clase, was allegedly wanted in connection with various crimes, according to police.

Ortiz won three World Series while spending 14 seasons with the Boston Red Sox and is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.