A Brooklyn Center man is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of a man whose body was found along a trail at Wilkie Park in Shakopee, according to a Scott County criminal complaint.
Emilio Vallejo Ortiz faces one felony count of second-degree murder, intentional but not premeditated, which carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. The complaint also cites Minnesota’s minimum-sentence law for firearms. It was filed October 9 in Scott County District Court and lists the offense date as on or about October 3.
According to the complaint, a Shakopee police officer was sent to the park at about 7:03 p.m. on Sunday, October 4, after three people walking a trail found a man’s body and reported it. Officers found him in weeds off the eastern trail, with a large pool of blood on the trail nearby, the complaint says. Near the blood they collected three spent 9 mm casings and a live 9 mm round. Two other people told police they saw a pool of blood and a casing on the trail around 11:45 a.m. that day, and officers later found that casing about 150 feet from the scene, the complaint says.
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An autopsy found the man had four gunshot wounds, and the complaint says the cause and manner of death was homicide by multiple gunshot wounds. The complaint says a gun had not been found despite searches of the area that included dogs.
Investigators learned the man owned a Ford Raptor pickup that was missing, according to the complaint. License plate cameras recorded it in the Brooklyn Center area on October 3, and Brooklyn Center officers found it unoccupied in an apartment building parking lot on October 5, about 1.1 miles from Ortiz’s home, the complaint says. A Raptor key was later found in a desk holding Ortiz’s personal documents, according to the complaint.
Detectives interviewed Ortiz on October 5. The complaint says he told them he worked with the man and had last driven the Raptor the Thursday before, and he denied driving it that weekend. He first said the man dropped him off about 3 p.m. on October 3, then changed his account to say the two went to a Burnsville Menards for a door lock and he was home the rest of the evening, according to the complaint. He denied owning a gun. The complaint says phone location data and store video “strongly conflicted” with what he told detectives.
The complaint says Menards surveillance video from about 5:15 to 5:32 p.m. on October 3 shows Ortiz driving the Raptor with the man in the passenger seat. State transportation cameras then recorded the truck heading west on Highway 13 and onto Highway 101, which the complaint says would have taken it toward Wilkie Park. The man’s phone stopped moving near where his body was found at about 5:37 p.m. and never moved again, according to the complaint. Ortiz’s phone was in the Wilkie Park parking lot from about 5:39 to 5:51 p.m. and near the scene until about 6:01 p.m., the complaint says, then traveled to where the Raptor was found and reached his home by about 7:02 p.m.
A preliminary review of Ortiz’s phone showed internet searches for a Glock, including a “glock 19,” a pistol that uses 9 mm ammunition, on September 28 and 30 and October 3 and 4, according to the complaint. It also quotes a September 28 message, translated from Spanish, in which Ortiz wrote, “Get me a Glock, buddy.”
Ortiz was arrested October 6 after a detective called him about the inconsistencies, the complaint says. He could not explain them, then stopped answering questions and said he did not remember that day, according to the complaint. Officers collected flip flops matching a pair seen in the Menards video, along with clothing similar to what he wore there, from two apartments they searched, the complaint says.
