DA Collin Sims reports that last week a St. Tammany Parish jury deliberated for approximately 20 minutes before returning a guilty verdict against 30 YO Fernando Cortez of Lacombe on the charge of second degree murder.
Assistant District Attorneys Iain Dover and Amanda Gritten handled the presentation of testimony and evidence to the jury during the three-day trial.
Judge Tara Zeller presided over the trial and is scheduled to sentence Cortez on July 23rd. Second degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence.
Testimony at trial established that at approximately 5:30 am on April 17, 2020, Cortez called 911 from his Lacombe residence. He told the 911 operator he and his “wife” had both been stabbed and were dying. Cortez then stated he had stabbed his “wife” 3 or 4 times, killing her and that “her leg was gone.” He said “I took it too far.” When asked why he killed her, he said “because she’s Covid.”
Deputies with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office were immediately dispatched to the residence and upon arrival, found Cortez standing in the kitchen still armed with a knife. After a brief struggle, Cortez was taken into custody. Deputies conducted a protective sweep of the residence and found the body of a deceased woman, later identified as Sandra Aldridge, who was actually the live-in girlfriend of the defendant. She had multiple lacerations to her neck. It was apparent someone had attempted to clean up blood from the scene. Deputies also found a freshly dug hole in the yard with a shovel nearby.
Cortez was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of several minor lacerations later determined to have been self-inflicted. He was then transported to the parish jail and booked on the charge of second degree murder.
During the booking process, jail staff asked Cortez a series of standard questions, one being whether he had any thoughts of harming himself or anyone else. He turned to the deputies who had transported him to the jail and said, “Don’t they know I just killed someone?” During the investigation, lead Detective Ben Williams developed information the victim was in the process of ending her relationship with the defendant.
Throughout the trial, defense counsel asserted the defendant acted in self-defense. In her closing argument to the jury after conclusion of all testimony, ADA Amanda Gritten brushed aside that claim, saying “It’s absurd they would tell you this is self-defense when there were so many defensive wounds on the victim. There has been zero evidence to suggest this was a justifiable homicide.”
The jury reached the same conclusion, quickly returning with its guilty verdict.
