A man charged with being an accomplice in the 2023 murders of Brian Fabricio Chevez and Camron Stokes failed to show up to his court hearing this week.
On Monday, Judge David Walgren ordered an “advance, conditional extraction order” for 21-year-old Anthony Martinez Ortiz, which was sent to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department at Men’s Central Jail, where he’s been held since December.
Martinez Ortiz has been in LASD custody since his March 18, 2023, arrest on suspicion of murder.
The prosecution said Martinez Ortiz drove his white Mustang to The Village apartment complex on Valle Del Oro that day, when Stephen Omar Rosas, his longtime friend and documented gang member, shot and killed two rival gang members. Rosas had been shot months prior, which left him with a broken leg and motive, according to testimony presented during the preliminary hearing.
After a several-day preliminary hearing that wrapped last month, Martinez Ortiz was held to answer to two counts of murder, which he was scheduled to answer this week.
“The court is notified by the Sheriff’s Department that the defendant is willingly refusing to attend court at this time,” according to the minute order for Department F at the San Fernando Courthouse, where the case is being heard.
The hearing was expected to be an arraignment for Martinez Ortiz, when the defendant would enter his plea to the charges.
The extraction order authorizes deputies to use force, if necessary, to get Martinez Ortiz to court and back.
“Therefore, the court orders the Sheriff’s Department to provide an oral warning that an extraction order has been signed and that the defendant is ordered by the court to exit his cell, enter a sheriff’s vehicle, and come to court,” according to Walgren’s order. “If the defendant refuses or fails to comply, the sheriff is ordered to use reasonable force, if necessary, to overcome the defendant’s unlawful refusal to exit his cell, board a sheriff’s transportation vehicle, and/or enter the courtroom.”
The order also authorized the LASD to “personally escort Anthony Martinez Ortiz every morning from his cell to court line and visually confirm that he has boarded the sheriff’s transportation vehicle.”
Martinez Ortiz is now due back in court March 13.
