Breaking Bond: Bond company wants to sever financial ties with defendant

Breaking Bond, a bonding company, wants to cut financial ties with a 25-year-old defendant accused of driving drunk and killing a 36-year-old ICU nurse. Ethan Ortiz was wanted in another county when he was granted bond. Randy Wallace following this story for us here tonight. Randy. Yeah, Anthony. Now, I did a Breaking Bond report about Ethan Ortiz back in August. What's happened since then is unusual and concerning. On July 5th, ICU nurse Joseph Perales Jr. was in an Uber when police say an intoxicated Ortiz rear-ended the Uber, killing Joseph. Even though he was wanted in Wharton County for violating one of his probations for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, 351st Criminal Court Judge Nada Cornelio let Ortiz post a $150,000 bond. Okay, so what happened when Ortiz went back to court? Was he then arrested on that warrant? Get this, Anthony, we can't find a court appearance for Ortiz in the last three months, which is unusual. By the time this aired, let's be real, a scuttlebutt is out there. People talk at the courthouse. Sure, they must have known he was wanted, which is what I was really surprised because I kept looking to see whether they were going to bring him back to court and then take him into custody. So now the bonding company here, they're telling the court they just can't find the guy. Yeah, in their court file, there's a document from the bonding company that basically is saying they want out. The bonding company is telling the court, relieve us of the financial responsibility because guess what? We're not in contact with him anymore. He will not respond to our over 50 attempts that have been made. Over the last month or so, to have him report to us so that we know that he's going to appear back in court. And you've been in contact with the victim's mother. I would imagine it's still very heartbroken, but what does she have to say? Oh, yeah, Anthony. Now, she tells us that she spoke to the prosecutor just yesterday who says that prosecutor told her nothing about the bonding company's affidavit to the court. It's going through the motions of life, living and not living. Joseph's mother Delia Perales says the prosecutor told her Ortiz would be free on bond for the holidays if he didn't violate his bond conditions. It's been broken and then I mean how do I get notified that he's been indicted and then to find out this information from you guys you know that he isn't reporting and that bonds people are letting him go they don't want to be responsible so he's a fugitive he's a fugitive on the run. And he's got court, right? He's supposed to be in court tomorrow morning. Now, if he shows up, you would think his bond would be revoked or he'd get arrested for the warrant out of Wharton County. So we'll see what happens and I'll let you know. All right, Randy. Thank you so much.