Crime & Safety

Defendants Severed in Murder-for-Hire Retrial

Accused hit man Antonio Ortega will go back to trial in February in the first of three attempted new trials stemming from the brutal 2009 machete attack on a Fountain Valley man.

Accused hit man Antonio Ortega will face the jury alone when he goes back to trial on attempted murder and conspiracy charges next February, Superior Court Judge Richard Toohey ruled Monday in Santa Ana.

Ortega, 25, of Santa Ana, along with Mary Sharpski, 48, and Michael Shores, 40, both of Fountain Valley, are charged with plotting to kill Frank Sharpski, known to friends and family as Rick, in March 2009. As part of the alleged conspiracy with Shores and Sharpski, Ortega is accused of attacking Rick Sharpski with a machete in an alley outside of the couple’s home and leaving him to die on the morning of March 3, 2009, fracturing his skull, severing a thumb and fingers, partly severing his nose and causing several other machete wounds.

Toohey granted a motion by Deputy District Attoney Lynda Fernandez to sever the charges against Ortega, Mary Sharpski and Michael Shores. Sharpski and Shores will go to trial again sometime in March. The first trial resulted in a mistrial on May 26 when the jury was unable to reach a verdict, voting 9-3 to convict Ortega, splitting 6-6 on Shores and voting 7-5 to acquit Sharpski.

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