Manuel Ovante was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for a double murder
According to court documents Manuel Ovante and three accomplices went to a home in order to buy drugs which they could not found. The group would return later and Ovante would pull a gun and shoot three people killing Jordan Trujillo and Damien Vickers
Manuel Ovante would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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MANUEL OVANTE 251126
PO Box 3400
Florence, AZ 85132
United States
Manuel Ovante Case
On June 11, 2008, Ovante and three friends drove to Jordan Trujillo’s house, hoping she would give them methamphetamine. Trujillo refused, but Ovante returned repeatedly that day attempting to obtain drugs. When Ovante and his friends entered Trujillo’s home the last time, they encountered Trujillo, who was asleep on a living room couch, Damien Vickers, and Gabriel Valenzuela. Without expressing anger or distress, Ovante suddenly pulled out a gun.
¶ 3 Ovante pointed the gun at Valenzuela and yelled “[W]ho left the safety on?” Ovante released the safety, pointed the gun again at Valenzuela, and told him not to move. He then shot the sleeping Trujillo twice in the head and began shooting at Valenzuela and Vickers, wounding both of them. Trujillo appeared to die almost instantly, but Vickers begged for help and Valenzuela called the police.
¶ 4 After the shooting, Ovante and two of his friends got into a truck and tried to convince the third friend, Nathan Duran, to leave Vickers behind. Duran instead dragged Vickers into the back of the truck. Vickers was bleeding from his bullet wounds, holding onto Duran, and asking to be taken to a hospital. Ovante refused to do so. After Vickers died in the truck, Ovante decided to abandon his body in an alley. Valenzuela, who remained in the apartment, survived the attack.
¶ 5 The State charged Ovante with two counts of first degree murder and one count of aggravated assault. The State sought the death penalty, alleging as aggravating circumstances that Ovante had been previously convicted of a serious offense (the aggravated assault of Valenzuela), see A.R.S. § 13–751(F)(2) (2008), and had been convicted of one or more other homicides committed during the commission of the offense, see id. § 13–751(F)(8). Ovante pleaded guilty to all charges and admitted both aggravating circumstances.
¶ 6 At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury determined Ovante should be sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Trujillo and sentenced to death for Vickers’ murder. Accordingly, the trial court entered sentences of life with a possibility of parole after twenty-five years for Trujillo’s murder, death for Vickers’ murder, and a mitigated term of six years in prison for the aggravated assault on Valenzuela.
