Juror Passes Out While Graphic Photos Shown During Laredo Serial Killer Trial

Relatives of four women found dead outside Laredo in September of 2018 wept in court Monday as the women’s injuries were detailed at the capital murder trial of the man accused of killing them.

One juror fainted shortly after Webb County Medical Examiner Corinne Stern began showing photographs of the victims, all of them Laredo sex workers who were shot in the head or neck.

Prosecutors say Juan David Ortiz, then 35, was an intelligence supervisor for the U.S. Border Patrol when he drove the women to remote areas and shot them — Melissa Ramirez, 29, on Sept. 3; Claudine Anne Luera, 42, on Sept. 13; and the last two on Sept. 15: Guiselda Alicia Hernandez, 35, and Humberto Ortiz, a transgender woman who went by Janelle Ortiz, 28.

The courtroom was cleared Monday after a gasp came from the jury box and jurors were seen trying to help the man who passed out at about 12:15 p.m. State District Judge Oscar J. Hale Jr., who had not called a break since the trial resumed at 8:50 a.m., dismissed the jury for lunch.