Man accused of the Merced County stabbing death of his lover enters plea

A man extradited from Mexico last month pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to the charge that he stabbed his lover in the neck, killing her in Hilmar almost nine years ago.

After stabbing 36-year-old Armanda Llanos Flores on March 31, 2010, Jesus Ortega fled Delhi to Mexico, investigators said. Dressed in orange prison-issued clothing, the 47-year-old Ortega appeared in Merced County Superior Court on Wednesday.

He did not speak but did wave to family in the courtroom as he exited.

After the Merced County Sheriff’s Office received calls about domestic violence just before midnight in 2010, deputies found Llanos Flores in a weakened state from large stab wounds, according to the investigators report. She died in a Modesto hospital the next day.

Deputies would later discover a methamphetamine operation at the home in the 19000 block of First Street. Ortega was not found before he fled to Mexico.

His attorney Curtis Bonghoon Sok and the prosecutor, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Nicole Silveira, declined to comment.

Ortega was arrested about five years ago in the city of Apatzingan in Michoacan, Mexico, according to the Merced County Sheriff’s Office. Mexican federal police facilitated the extradition that brought him back to Merced County in December.

The man and his girlfriend of 10 years had gotten into an argument earlier in the day back in 2010, investigators said. He left the house and bought scotch before drinking it at a nearby ranch, one witness told investigators, according to the report.

Later that night, Ortega returned and let himself into the residence before another argument erupted, the report says.

Ortega then stabbed the victim outside the residence, nearly severing an artery in her vertebrae, according to an investigator’s report. When the woman’s 48-year-old relative tried to intervene, he was also stabbed in the back and slashed on the face before Ortega left the scene.

Ortega had a wife and children in Mexico, according to the investigator’s report. She said she was not aware of the extramarital affair until after her husband was arrested.

Inside the home, agents found about $5,000 in meth, in addition to several canisters of acetone and other chemicals used for meth production, according to Sun-Star archives.

Agents also found a shrine dedicated to Santa Muerte — a cloaked skeleton figure who carries a scythe and looks similar to the Grim Reaper. The deity, whose name means “Saint of Death” in English, is honored in some parts of Mexico.

It’s not uncommon for drug traffickers to exalt Santa Muerte, according to investigators.

Ortega is due back in court on Feb. 13.