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| CARLOS ORTIZ |
"Charlie" or "Charlie Boy," as he is known, has a 4-year-old son with a woman who lives there — one of three children he has fathered with three women in his 27 years, friends say. He knows almost everyone who lives in the area by their street names and by their "government" — the birth names that few go by.
Police knew they could find him there, too. So, many times he has run from them when cruisers rolled down and around the horseshoe-shaped street of boxy, Section 8 housing, looking for him on a warrant for a stolen bike or vandalism or some petty theft. And Davis Drive residents would cover for him: Charlie? Nope, haven't seen him.
"He was," Ortiz's cousin Jose "Ito" Torres said, "one of us."
Was.
Ortiz — who appears to be the prosecution's star witness in the murder case against former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez — has had his membership revoked in the DooWops, the nickname for the Davis Drive family, because, Torres says, he is a snitch.
So, if the case is headed where some legal experts believe and Ortiz is granted immunity to help prosecutors convict Hernandez of the execution-style murder of Odin Lloyd, Ortiz should think about staying out of the old neighborhood when and if he's a free man again, his cousin said.
"He can come back here," Torres said, "but if you come back to the streets where everybody thinks you're hard but you've been snitching ..." His voice trails off. He doesn't want to say the words.
It's not just that Ortiz apparently is cooperating with authorities, Torres said. He is flipping on Hernandez, the guy from Bristol who became an NFL star with a $40 million contract. Not many from Bristol made it as big as Hernandez did, and Ortiz is threatening to put him away for life. He's violating the code.
"That's Aaron Hernandez," Amber Schryer said from the couch where she would let Ortiz crash. "You tell the police you don't know anything."
Affidavits used for search warrants in Florida and Massachusetts, however, indicate Ortiz has been telling investigators what he knows. According to the documents, he told police that Ernest Wallace, the other man allegedly in the car the night Lloyd was shot and killed, told him that Hernandez fired the fatal shots. Ortiz also tipped police to Hernandez's secret apartment in Franklin, Mass., where investigators found clothing belonging to Hernandez that might be tied to that night, police said.
"Everybody knows that Charlie told," Torres said. "He's been labeled a rat. He's done. He's done. You're going to have another breaking news (story) on TV."
Ironically, a day after Ortiz was arrested in January for interfering with an officer, he complained about those who had turned him in. On Facebook, he wrote, "People need stop snitching (expletive) on ur boi!"
Talking about Charlie Boy
The two-story, side-by-side units are grouped on each side of Davis Drive. They were built in the 1940s to help returning GIs get back on their feet, Bristol councilman Eric Carlson said. Now, public housing for low-income tenants, the units are tattered. Glass is optional, screens are a luxury.
Nicole "Minnie" Patton answered the door at 125 Davis Drive. Expecting the media, she wore a T-shirt with a photo on the front of the son she has with Ortiz. She insisted, "I have nothing to say," but let the shirt do the talking — she apparently is proud to be connected to one of the nation's highest-profile murder cases.
Patton and others realize where this incredible saga might be headed. They had tuned their TVs to the George Zimmerman trial round-the-clock. If the Hernandez case reaches trial, Nancy Grace and courtroom analysts up and down the dial will be talking about Ortiz — about their Charlie Boy. The world will stop and listen to his every word when, or if, he takes the stand.
Maybe Patton will talk to the media then, but she refused to comment about their relationship (friends and police said Ortiz is dating someone else), including the time she called police on Ortiz, according to a May 2011 incident report.
They were still together, and Patton walked out of the house on Davis Drive wearing pajamas. "Go get some (expletive) clothes on," Ortiz yelled, according to the report. They got into an argument. Ortiz yanked off her shirt, leaving her in just a bra. He then pulled her into the house and across the floor. Ortiz was arrested for breach of peace.
Arguing with one of his girlfriends? Sure, Charlie did that. (Handyman Alan Libby, who rents a garage where Ortiz had been living with his new girlfriend, said they were "always arguing.") Ripping off a bike because he wanted to get to the other side of town? He's done that, too, his friends said. Drugs? That's no big deal. But killing? Not Charlie.
Hernandez, 23, has been charged with murder, Wallace, 41, as an accessory after the fact, and Ortiz is being held on illegal possession of a firearm. All three have been denied bail. To those who know Ortiz, it's a simple game of "Which One of These Is Not Like The Others?"
"Charlie ain't no killer," said Milton Montesdeoca, who says he used to shoot hoops with Ortiz.
Torres believes the story that Ortiz has told investigators, according to court documents: He was with Hernandez, Wallace and Lloyd in the early morning hours of June 17.
Hernandez and Lloyd had a beef, but they shook hands and made up. When the car stopped, the other three men got out to urinate. Ortiz heard shots. Hernandez and Wallace returned to the car, which sped off. In the dark, Ortiz couldn't see who had fired the fatal shots, but Wallace later told him that Hernandez had.
Still, he said, Ortiz should shut up, get the best deal he can and do the time.
Torres recalls the nights he and Ortiz would get drunk or high and dream about a better life. He said he helped Ortiz recently deal with the death of his mother.
He believes Ortiz saw his relationship with Hernandez as a way out of Bristol, as Hernandez's driver or errand boy. After all, Hernandez had rented the Franklin apartment for Wallace. Maybe he would do the same for him. Ortiz had boasted to friends that he had hung out at Hernandez's huge home in North Attleborough, Mass. He apparently had hoped some of that $40 million would trickle down.
Torres said Hernandez took advantage of that. When, as prosecutors said, Hernandez summoned Ortiz, the kid hustled to the star's side that night.
"That's my cousin and I love him, but he got caught up with the wrong people and they used him," Torres said. "If he thinks you're his friend, he's going to go all out for you. He has a good heart, but he's not very smart."
Confused and scared
With a criminal record and drug history, Ortiz's credibility likely will come under fire by Hernandez's attorneys. In an affidavit for Ortiz's arrest on a probation violation, police said that on May 21, when he reported to his probation officer, Ortiz "disclosed that he was abusing PCP, alcohol and THC daily." That drug use was confirmed by a failed drug test, police said.
Chris Dearborn, a criminal law professor at Suffolk University in Boston and a former public defender and defense attorney, says Hernandez's lawyers will attack Ortiz if he testifies — but it's not a slam dunk that he will. Ortiz "might regret what he already has told police and stop talking," Dearborn said, though Torres insisted it's too late to fix his reputation.
"He might fear revenge," Dearborn said. "Plus, he has a lawyer now."
Next month, when Ortiz returns to court, attorneys will argue over whether he is too dangerous to release on bail. Ortiz's lawyer, John Connors, chuckled at that. He said Ortiz, who wept in front of a Bristol judge when extradicted to Massachusetts, is "confused and scared" and "is certainly not dangerous."
While his buddies from the streets struggle to make sense of Ortiz's involvement and argue over whether he should keep his mouth shut, Connors sees the case in simpler terms: a poor kid from Davis Drive mesmerized by a football star.
Said Connors: "If Tom Brady called you up and said, 'Let's go for a ride,' you'd probably go, right?"
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