An Upper Merion man is headed to jail for his violent confrontation with a repo man during which he threatened the tow truck operator with a gun and tried to force him off the road.
Johnathan Ortiz, 32, of the 200 block of Gulph Lane, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11 1/2 to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the June 3, 2021, incident that occurred while the tow truck operator was trying to repossess a vehicle registered to Ortiz.
Judge Thomas M. DelRicci, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, ordered Ortiz to report to the county jail on Dec. 1 to begin serving the sentence. Ortiz also must complete two years’ probation following parole, meaning he will be under court supervision for about four years.
The judge ordered Ortiz to have no contact with the victim who worked for Giannone Companies Towing.
“(Ortiz) admitted that he chased after the tow truck driver that night with a firearm and then got into his vehicle and tried to run him off the road several times,” said Assistant District Attorney Tanner C. Beck, who sought a jail sentence against Ortiz. “This was always going to be a jail case. This is an innocent victim who was just trying to do his job and was ultimately put at risk by this defendant taking matters into his own hands and not agreeing with the fact that his car was being repossessed.
“This is an incident of violence while (the victim) was just trying to do his job. He had a gun pulled on him. This is not acceptable to treat people like this,” Beck added.
Giannone Companies Towing released a statement emphasizing it was satisfied with the outcome and pleased the matter concluded without the burden of taxpayers’ expense for a jury trial.
“Far too often we see many members of our industry attacked, stabbed, shot and/or killed for simply doing their job. These are not just men and women you may or may not meet in your driveway in the middle of the night. These are real human beings who are brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles and most importantly parents and spouses to their loved ones and most commonly the provider to their household,” the company statement read.
Company officials said agents “are continuously training on how to deescalate when repossessions become hostile.”
“The defendant showed carelessness and a complete lack of respect for human life over a vehicle. We only pray the defendant learns from his mistakes and this case deters others from doing something as stupid and senseless, and potentially causing one of these agents out on the street from making it home to their loved ones,” the company statement continued.
Company officials thanked county prosecutors and the Upper Merion police “for their swift and thorough investigation and their open line of communication with our company.”
Beck said the tow truck operator was “afraid for his life.”
“It’s horrible. He had a gun pointed at him. It’s a very traumatic experience that he’s going to have to live with the rest of his life,” Beck said.
Defense lawyer Stephen Dean Stewart Jr. represented Ortiz.
The investigation began about 7:30 a.m. June 3 when Upper Merion police responded to the 200 block of Gulph Lane for a report of a man with a firearm, according to court papers.
At that time, an employee of Giannone Companies Towing told police he had arrived at Ortiz’s residence about 7:15 a.m. and was in the process of repossessing a Dodge Journey vehicle registered to Ortiz when Ortiz ran out of his house, yelling that he had “called the bank,” jumped on back of the tow truck’s boom and yelled obscenities, preventing the victim from taking the vehicle, according to court documents.
“As (the victim) drove from the driveway without the vehicle, he saw Ortiz holding what appeared to be a gray colored semiautomatic pistol,” Upper Merion Police Officer Brendan Dougherty alleged in the arrest affidavit. “As (the victim) observed Ortiz with the firearm, he ducked down in the driver’s seat of his tow truck and began to drive away. As (the victim) drove away he did see Ortiz jogging towards him and to his truck while pointing the firearm at him.”
Ortiz allegedly ran toward the passenger side of the victim’s truck yelling, “What’s up now, what’s up now?” and then “smacked the gun against the passenger door window,” according to court papers. As the victim called police, a dispatcher heard the victim shout, “gun, gun, gun.”
“(The victim) drove away but quickly observed Ortiz driving next to him on Matsonford Road in the black colored 2018 Dodge Journey, which is the vehicle that he had just attempted to repossess,” Dougherty alleged.
The victim drove onto a grassy area near a cemetery and Ortiz allegedly positioned his vehicle in an effort to block the victim’s tow truck from re-entering the roadway, according to the criminal complaint.
“(The victim) reported that he was ‘in fear of my life’ so he rammed the front passenger side of Ortiz’s vehicle in an effort to get away,” Dougherty alleged.
The victim drove back onto Matsonford Road but Ortiz continued to “give chase” and attempted to get in front of the tow truck to block the victim, police alleged. The victim reported that while Ortiz was trying to block his tow truck that he did tap the rear quarter panel of Ortiz’s vehicle, which caused Ortiz’s vehicle to spin out of control, according to the arrest affidavit.
The victim then drove from the area and met responding police officers in the 400 block of Upper Gulph Road.
During the investigation, a witness told police she observed the confrontation outside Ortiz’s residence and saw him remove a firearm from his vehicle and run barefoot along Gulph Lane chasing the tow truck while displaying the firearm, according to court papers.
Armed with a search warrant, township detectives later searched Ortiz’s home and found a .40-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol, wrapped in a sweatshirt, inside a closet, according to the arrest affidavit.
Court documents indicate that the tow truck operator also had tried to repossess Ortiz’s vehicle on two other occasions before the June 3 confrontation and each time was thwarted by Ortiz.
“The defendant didn’t obviously want that. When the tow truck driver tried to repossess the vehicle the defendant wasn’t having it. When the tow truck driver came back a third time the defendant took it to the next level, pulled out his firearm and chased after him,” said Beck, arguing the chase also put other drivers on the roadway in danger.
Other charges of firearms not to be carried without a license, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and terroristic threats were dismissed against Ortiz as part of the plea agreement.
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