Following a daylong preliminary hearing, a judge ruled a Valencia man accused of strangling his boyfriend should stand trial for murder.
Christian Alexander Ortiz, 22, charged with murder in the death of Brayan Rodriguez, appeared Tuesday in San Fernando Superior Court for a hearing to determine if the case should go to trial.
“Oriz was held to answer on Oct. 16,” said Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The preliminary hearing had been postponed four times this year.
Over the course of the past year, defense lawyers have requested more time to prepare their case.
Ortiz, who remains in custody in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility with bail set at $2 million, is now scheduled to be arraigned on the charge of murder on Oct. 29.
He was arrested on suspicion of murder by deputies of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station about 3 a.m. on Sept. 25, 2017.
Rodriguez’s body was found inside a closet in a house on the 23600 block of Via Valer, near Valencia Glen Park, sometime before 4 p.m. on Sept. 24, 2017.
Rodriguez, 20, identified by prosecutors as the accused man’s boyfriend, was reported missing Sept. 22, 2017, prompting several searches to find him throughout that weekend.
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