Judge denies new trial for ex-juvenile lifer, now 38 (Reading Eagle, 2018)

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READING EAGLE, READING, PA. 

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2018 B3

Judge denies new trial for ex-juvenile lifer, now 38 

BY STEPHANIE WEAVER 

A Berks County judge has denied former juvenile lifer Melvin Ortiz a new trial in the 1997 murder of a Reading luncheonette owner.

Judge Patrick T. Barrett’s office filed the order denying Oritz’s post-sentence motion at 4:51 p.m. Monday, nine minutes before the deadline for the decision.

The order did not include any additional comments or an opinion but noted that the decision was made after the hearing and arguments made on the motion.

Those arguments occurred during three separate hearings staring Oct. 10, but the biggest piece came last week, when one of the prosecution’s witnesses from Oritz’ 1999 trial took the stand before Barrett to recant her testimony.

Defense attorney Cheryl J. Sturm declined to comment since it is a pending case but said Oritz intends to appeal Barrett’s ruling to the state Superior Court.

District Attorney John T. Adams said his office was pleased on behalf of victim George Clauser’s family.

“The family has endured the loss of their father, husband, and son for many years,” Adams said. “They have been devastated by this incident.”

Adams said his office has never believed there is any credibility to the witness’ recantation and that it was likely motivated by a broken relationship.

“The bottom line is that the courts have always looked at recantation testimony as suspect,” he said. “We believe that the recantation testimony here was not credible and was clearly suspect.”

A jury had found Oritz, now 38, guilty in 1999 of second-degree murder and related offenses in the fatal shooting of Clauser during a botched robbery of Effie’s Pizza Villa in 1997.

Since he was only 17 when the murder occured, Oritz was granted a resentencing hearing in June due ot U.S. Supreme Court rulings that deemed mandatory life sentences for juveniles unconstitutional.

Oritz was facing a life term plus 12 ½ to 25 years before, but Barrett gave him a new sentence of 35 years to life.

Sturm then filed a post-sentence motion claiming that Oritz should be given a new trial due to new evidence from Tina Hiester, who said she lied at trial to protect her then-boyfriend, John Caltagirone.

After arguments about if he could even hear it, Barrett allowed Hiester, who was then Tina Valentin, to testify last week. She said she deceived investigators when she told them she overheard Oritz call Caltagirone to tell him that his gun accidentally fired during the attempted robbery.

She testified last week that she had no knowledge that Oritz committed the crime. She said Oritz called Caltagirone twice that night, but they only discussed Oritz getting a ride from a party.

At trial, four witnesses testified that Oritz was at a party when the murder took place, but a prosecution rebuttal witness said he came to Hiester’s house about a block from the restaurant roughly 30 minutes after the shooting.

Hiester also testified she didn’t know what Caltagirone was doing at the time of the murder byt claimed he had a bag that held a ski mask, blue hooded sweatshirt and a handgun. She also testified that, at his direction, she later dropped the bag into the Schuylkill River.

Hieester said she’s still not sure if he was involved because when she would ask him, his story would change, but she told Barrett she wanted to set the record straight.

Sturm argued that without Hiester corroborating Caltagirone’s account, a jury would have a hard time believing that Oritz confessed to him.

Assistant District Attorney Alisa Hobart argued the absence of Hiester’s testimony wouldn’t change the verdict.

She also highlighted the legal battles Hiester and Caltagirone have had over the custody of their children and inconsistencies in Hiester’s accounts from her recantations in 2005, 2011 and now.

Contact Stephanie Weaver: 610-371-5042 or sweaver@readingeagle.com