MARTINEZ — A Pittsburg man was sentenced to 30 years to life for stabbing his significant other and leaving her to die on a Bay Point roadway, court records show.
Richard Ortiz Jr., 50, was sentenced after being convicted of murdering Anneliese Ponce, 44, in an Oct. 2, 2021 stabbing. The sentencing was finalized last November but hasn’t been previously reported.
Prosecutors say that Ortiz stabbed Ponce on Island View Drive during a domestic dispute, then ran away and tried to hop a fence when deputies arrived. He was arrested and has been behind bars ever since, court records show.
The murder followed at least two other violence domestic disputes, one from the prior July where Ortiz was seen with a head wound, but allegedly threatened Ponce, and another from the prior August where he allegedly punched and kicked her in the same neighborhood, court records show.
Ortiz was convicted last year. Prosecutors argued for a 44 years to life sentence, which Ortiz’s lawyer said in court filings would have been as drastic as a life-without-parole term, given his age.
In court filings, Ortiz’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Julian Ross, described Ortiz as the product of a “poor role model” who nevertheless is described by his daughter as “the most supportive, caring, and loving dad.”
“While incarcerated, Mr. Ortiz has focused his time on his spirituality and self-improvement,” Ross wrote in a court motion.
Except, prosecutors countered, for one day in particular, when Ortiz allegedly fashioned a shank out of metal fencing in the county jail, prompting another inmate to say that Ortiz would “drink and start ‘acting like he wants to stab people,’” prosecutors wrote in court filings. His “life of crime” includes telling a man “it’s time for you to die” in 2018 and claiming to be a gang member while threatening to shoot up a bar in 2016.
Ortiz was first sent to prison in the early 20s, and is now incarcerated at the substance abuse treatment prison in Corcoran, records show.