Orange County man could get death penalty in murder of 83-year-old woman

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — It took an Orange County jury, of 11 women and 1 man an hour to decide the fate of a man accused of killing an 83-year-old woman during a robbery.

The jury reached guilty verdicts of first-degree murder and arson for Juan Rosario in the beating death and burning of Elena Ortega on Sept. 18, 2013.

The medical examiner's testimony on Monday was that Rosario burned her alive after he failed to beat her to death in her Turnbull Drive home.

Rosario’s ex-girlfriend, Janet Gutierrez, testified on Tuesday. She told investigators a year after Ortega’s death that Rosario committed the crime. She admitted to helping Rosario clean up the mess and hide the evidence, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors called Ortega's neighbor to the stand on Wednesday. He testified that Rosario and Ortega forged an unlikely bond, given that the neighbor was in high school around the time she died.

The man told the jury that Ortega became a grandmother to him. He said he helped her clean and ran errands for her because she was unable to do those things on her own.

Ortega’s daughter also testified Wednesday. She spoke about her mother’s belongings being recovered in Rosario’s home. One item was a makeup bag that investigators found in Rosario’s backyard.

"It's my mother's library card. She had it in her wallet. She always wanted to learn how to speak English, so that was her first thing, to go to the library,” said Elena Wilson.

Rosario is already serving 18 years for a separate burglary case.

Rosario faces the death penalty when he is sentenced in June.

The death penalty is back on the table after Florida Gov. Rick Scott reassigned the case from Orange-Osceola County State Attorney Aramis Ayala to State Attorney Brad King.

Rosario’s case was one of more than 20 that were reassigned to King after Ayala announced in March that her office would not consider the death penalty in any cases.

Ayala has appealed Scott's decision, arguing that he was overreaching his authority by removing an elected state attorney from the death penalty cases.

If the Florida Supreme Court agrees, the decision could send Rosario's case and any of the others that had not been sentenced, back to Ayala, who would be free to take the death penalty off the table, WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said.

"It would give Ayala the green light to do just what she said she was going to do," he said. "That is, not apply the death penalty in any case."

If the death penalty has already been imposed in the case, though, Ayala getting the case back would not change anything, Sheaffer said.

"It would go on appeal, but it really wouldn't make a difference as to the appeal because the death sentence would have already been imposed," he said.

Regardless of what happens in the sentencing phase of Rosario's case, Wilson said she feels justice has been served.

"My mom is up there looking down and resting in peace," she said.

Cox Media Group