GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — A Mexican citizen living in the U.S. illegally pleaded guilty Monday to murdering his girlfriend and dumping her body along a Michigan highway.
Brandon Ortiz Vite, 25, entered a plea in a Grand Rapids, Michigan, court and is expected to be sentenced on Oct. 31.
He was tried for second-degree murder, carjacking, carrying a concealed weapon and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
The case became a political flashpoint in April when former President Donald Trump accused the Biden administration of failing to keep Ortiz Vite out of the country after he was deported in 2020. It is not known whether he returned during the last year of the Trump administration or during the Biden administration.
Ruby Garcia was found shot to death along the highway on March 22.
Before the shooting, she and Ortiz Vite were in a car on U.S. 131, arguing about their relationship, investigators said. Ortiz Vite shot Garcia in the head, pulled her body from the car and drove away, prosecutors said.
According to police, the evidence against him consists of his 911 call two days later, in which he confessed to the crime and said he wanted to turn himself in. He was at a church for a Palm Sunday service when he made the call.
Kent County District Attorney Chris Becker said Garcia’s family preferred Ortiz Vite’s request rather than have the case go to trial, according to WOOD-TV.
“While we have a very good case, and I wasn’t worried about losing it, things happen,” Becker said. “Things can be overturned. It can be a mistrial. There’s a lot more certainty with a plea than if you take it to trial.”