Local News in Brief : Countywide : Heart Transplant Patient Improves

The condition of Orange County’s seventh heart transplant patient, who received the heart of a gunshot victim, was upgraded from critical to serious just two days after his surgery, hospital officials said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, murder charges were filed Tuesday against Miguel Montoya, 45, of Placentia, who is accused of shooting to death a Mexican national whose heart was used for the transplant surgery.

The 31-year-old heart recipient’s name was being withheld at the request of his family, said Elaine Beno, spokeswoman for UCI Medical Center in Orange. The patient, a Garden Grove resident, was sitting up in a chair Tuesday and his breathing tube had been removed, she said.

Meanwhile, spokesmen for the Orange County coroner’s office and Placentia police said they have a tentative identification of the 25-year-old heart donor, who was shot in the head Friday night. His name also was being withheld pending notification of the next of kin in Mexico.

Montoya remained in custody Tuesday at Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail. A public defender was appointed to represent him and arraignment was postponed to Sept. 8, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard F. Toohey.