Driver Who Used Aliases to Avoid Jail Is Convicted

A 31-year-old Fallbrook man who had bedeviled authorities--and avoided jail--with his use of multiple aliases was convicted Wednesday of multiple counts of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Juan Vidal Colin Ortiz was convicted by a jury in Vista Superior Court Judge William Howatt’s courtroom after five hours of deliberation, and now faces eight years in state prison when he is sentenced.

Ortiz was arrested five times in 1991--four times alone last September, including on back-to-back nights--but had used three distinctly different names as well as a variation of his real name, prosecutor Jim Valliant said.

Since he usually gave a different name, authorities didn’t realize Ortiz had been convicted in 1990 of drunk driving, which would have enabled arresting officers to put him in jail immediately.

Once clerks in the district attorney’s office linked the different arrest reports, they learned that Oceanside police, sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol officers had been arresting the same man without knowing it, prosecutors said.

In addition to Wednesday’s felony convictions of drunk driving, Ortiz was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon for attempting to run another motorist off the road in Fallbrook; five misdemeanor counts of driving on a suspended license, and one count of resisting arrest.

Ortiz also had been arrested four times in 1990 for drunk driving.

Authorities say it was amazing that Ortiz had not killed anyone despite his propensity to drink and drive.

“I’ve never seen a case like this,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary-Ellen Clark, who prosecuted the case at an earlier stage. “Nothing scares him enough to get him to refrain from drinking even for a day. He goes right back out and does it again.”

Valliant said he would ask today that Ortiz be held without bail pending his sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.