District Attorney Micheal Murray reported that on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, Enrique Guadalupe Ortega Jr. was convicted by a Brown County jury of Felon in Possession of a Firearm in the 35th Judicial District Court.  Judge Sam Moss sentenced Ortega to 12 years in prison.

Assistant District Attorney Skyler Schoolfield and First Assistant District Attorney Elisha Bird presented evidence to the jury on Tuesday. Officer Roberto Rodriguez, Officer Trevor Sears, and Detective Aaron Taylor with the Brownwood Police Department and Lieutenant Scott Bird with the Brown County Sheriffs Office testified to the jury.

The evidence showed that Officer Rodriguez pulled over a car where Ortega was the front seat passenger. Ortega was sitting on a magazine that contained seven rounds of FC .25 caliber ammunition. Detective Taylor then searched the car where he found a disassembled .25 caliber handgun under the front passenger seat chair and on the front passenger seat floorboard. Ortega’s backpack also contained thirteen rounds of FC .25 caliber ammunition and seventeen rounds of different ammunition, such as .22, 38 SPL, 410, 38-40 W-W, and 32-20 WRA.

Ortega was prohibited from possessing a firearm outside of his residence because he was previously convicted of the felony offense of Burglary of a Habitation in Brown County, Texas. Ortega was sentenced as a repeat offender based on his prior felony conviction for Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Deliver in Brown County, Texas.