Homeless man not guilty in 2014 slaying at Hollywood McDonald's

A jury on Friday found a 36-year-old homeless man not guilty in the beating death of a Good Samaritan after a confrontation at a Hollywood McDonald’s restaurant.

Authorities said Jeremy Harris was yelling and cursing at a 3-year-old boy in the restaurant on June 18, 2014, when Gabriel Ortega Jr., 57, who was out for a birthday dinner, stepped between the two and told him to stop. Harris then punched Ortega in the face and fled before police arrived, according to court testimony.

After filing a battery report, Ortega refused medical treatment, but days later, as symptoms worsened, a friend took him to the hospital. He fell into a coma and died July 14. The L.A. County coroner ruled the death a homicide.

Harris was arrested July 31 and charged with one count of voluntary manslaughter. On Friday, a judge did not allow the jury to consider a lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter. The trial began March 30 at the L.A. County courthouse in Alhambra.

The boy’s grandmother, Kathiern Rodriguez, testified that they had seen Harris walk in and begin talking loudly to himself. She said she and the boy’s mother, Heidy Garcia, began packing up to leave because he was making them uncomfortable.

When Harris came over to their table and began screaming at the child, Garcia first stood in front of her child to try to shield him, then Ortega stepped in, according to Rodriguez's and Garcia's testimony.

He said, "'You’re not going to hit that baby. What do you think you’re doing? … You have no business talking like that to a baby,’” Rodriguez said.

Garcia and Rodriguez didn’t find out that Ortega had died until an officer told them he'd seen it on the news.

Garcia, who choked up on the stand before identifying a picture of Ortega, called him her “hero.”

“I just feel like God just sent me an angel and saved our lives. Because if it wasn’t for him, I don’t know what would have happened,” Garcia said.

Both women testified that Harris spat in Ortega’s face, at least once deliberately, which was when they said the argument escalated, and Harris punched Ortega in the face.

It's not clear how many times Ortega was struck. When police responded that night, Rodriguez and Ortega gave statements and said Harris had punched Ortega once. But in court, Rodriguez and Garcia said Harris punched Ortega multiple times, and in a 911 call played for the jury, Rodriguez told operators that Harris was "beating him up.”

Guillermo Arevalo-Farias, Harris’ public defender, said during the trial that Harris was not the man who struck Ortega. Both the mother and the grandmother of the child identified Harris in a photo lineup but expressed some uncertainty about certain physical features.

Kathy Pezdek, a psychology professor at Claremont Graduate University, testified that several factors can lead to misidentification, such as time of exposure to the suspect, time delay in seeing the suspect and describing the suspect, and the bias of an in-court identification.

“There’s no dispute that whoever did this is a bad guy,” Arevalo-Farias said in closing arguments. “That’s not in dispute. The dispute is whether or not they got it right.”

He also brought attention to a tumor that was identified during Ortega’s autopsy that had started in his liver and metastasized to his brain, offering the possibility that Ortega’s hemorrhage was unrelated to the attack.

In closing arguments Friday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Tricia Taylor wrote “Don’t get involved” and “Stay out of it” on an easel pad in front of the jury, then turned to them. “How many times have you heard that advice?” she asked. Ortega "stepped up when no one else would."

Taylor argued that the stress of the moment could have caused certain details about Harris' appearance to be fuzzy. She added that although Ortega had a tumor, the length of his life was shortened by the assault.

When the verdict was announced, Arevalo-Farias gave Harris a pat on the back. Moments later, Harris made the sign of the cross. Arevalo-Farias said he was satisfied with the outcome.

“As the ID expert said, misidentification is the source of a lot of wrongful convictions,” he said. “I’m just glad that the outcome in this case wasn’t a wrongful conviction based on misidentification.”

Sandra Ramirez, Ortega's friend who took him to the hospital, said it was no surprise to her when Ortega told her about the June 18 incident.

“It was simply the kind of guy he was,” Ramirez said. “He was very concerned about people and wanted to see that they got help if they needed it.”

She met Ortega at a dog park three years ago. He was living out of his car at the time and took care of her dogs while she was at work.

“He used to be a really bad guy,” Ramirez said. “Then he cleaned up his act and was really excited about doing good.”

He told Ramirez that he was a former gang member and spent his time mentoring gang-involved youth and volunteering at church.

Last Easter, Ramirez remembered, Ortega arrived at a shelter to help distribute meals, but no one was there.

“He called me up frantic and said, ‘Can I use your kitchen? I’m going to use the rest of my food stamps to buy some food,’” Ramirez said.

That night, the two of them prepared and delivered 30 meals to families in need, she said.

Ramirez said she’s “not vindictive” toward Harris.

"Nothing is going to bring [Ortega] back," she said. "So if this guy can get some help, maybe he can turn around and do what Gabriel did. People can change.”

-- Taylor Goldenstein