Murder-Suicide Snuffs Out a Teen-Age Romance

Fernando Ortega and Evangelica Guzman fell in love during their freshman year at Jordan High School, began sharing an apartment before they obtained their driver’s licenses, and had a baby girl the same year.

But somewhere along the way, the teen-age romance turned rocky. Then it turned violent. Finally, on Monday night, it turned deadly.

Police said Ortega, 18, distraught over his breakup with Guzman, 17, pointed a .357 magnum at her head and fired, fatally wounding her as she cradled their 13-month-old daughter, Crystal. He then took his own life with a single shot.

The baby was spared.

“We are not talking about a violent person, but you know the fair of heart,” Los Angeles Police Detective Adalberto Luper said with a sigh. “Love has a way of eating you alive when you’re young if you don’t know how to handle it when it goes away. . . .

“Well, I think that’s what happened here. Very young love; puppy love, really. And they weren’t ready for it.”

Police, neighbors and friends of Guzman provided the following account of what led to the murder-suicide.

Three or four weeks ago, Guzman moved out of the apartment she and Ortega shared near downtown Los Angeles because, she told friends, he drank too much and beat her regularly. Guzman also told them that she hit him back, but was worried that he would seriously injure her someday.

“He loved her. She loved him,” recalled Ana Marie Lopez, 19, who said she met Guzman earlier this year while they waited for free milk at a neighborhood church. “You know, it was just that they could not live together.”

Guzman supported herself and the baby on a monthly $560 welfare check and also attended senior year classes at Jordan, Lopez said.

Guzman’s friends knew little about Ortega, except that almost every day since the teen-agers separated, he visited Guzman and their baby at the tiny blue stucco home of friends in the 800 block of East Adams Boulevard. It was there, Detective Luper said, that Guzman had “sought refuge” from Ortega.

While Guzman had not obtained a restraining order in court, the detective said, she had filed a non-criminal report with police on a domestic dispute March 13, after the couple argued outside a shopping mall.

Friends said Guzman never talked of Ortega having a gun.

Ortega arrived in the alley near Guzman’s temporary home Monday night, and the couple soon began arguing loudly. In her arms, Guzman held their baby, dressed in a yellow knit suit.

About 10 p.m., as the infant cried in the cold, the only eyewitness to the shooting walked out of his apartment and suggested that Guzman bring the baby inside. The man, whose family Guzman was living with, told neighbors that Ortega threatened him, then fired a shot at him.

Ortega put his arm around Guzman as though to hug her, then suddenly shot her in the head, then again in the stomach, police and neighbors said.

The gunman chased the eyewitness briefly, then turned the weapon to his own forehead and fired. The sweethearts fell side-by-side, about three feet apart, police said. Both were dead at the scene.

Crystal Ortega was bloodied and bruised in the arms of her mother, who clutched the baby as she fell to the ground. The baby was said to be in the care of her maternal grandparents Tuesday.