Two men stalked a 24-year-old Bronx man by placing a tracking device on his car, then shot him dead in front of his home and stole his diamond jewelry, authorities said.
Welfy Espinal, 25, and Lenyn Toribio, 27, were charged in an indictment unsealed by the feds Friday with interstate stalking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit interstate stalking.
They allegedly killed Jeremy Ortega in front of his Throggs Neck home on Quincy Ave. near Hardin Ave. on April 13, 2025.
Police at the time said Ortega was shot twice in the chest at about 4:45 a.m. Medics rushed Ortega to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died about an hour later.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Police investigate the fatal shooting of Jeremy Ortega on Quincy Ave. in the Bronx on April 13, 2025. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
“We are glad that Jeremy is finally getting the justice he deserves,” his younger brother told the Daily News Monday.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said Espinal, who was busted in New Jersey and has a prior arrest for possession of a stolen car, and Toribio, who is still being sought, traced the scheme back to March 28, 2025.
On that day, Toribio activated a GPS tracking device, Clayton said, with Espinal a few days later sticking it onto the victim’s vehicle. A day later, the suspects allegedly went to an Upper Manhattan nightclub where they spotted the victim, wearing various diamond jewelry items.
DOJ
A GPS tracker which prosecutors say was attached to Jeremy Ortega’s car. (DOJ)
On April 12, the suspects surveilled Ortega as he went to a Midtown restaurant, then waited in Throggs Neck for Ortega to return home, Clayton said. When he did, he was set upon by the suspects, chased, shot numerous times and robbed of a bag holding the diamond jewelry, Clayton said.
The suspects drove off, using multiple vehicles and a stolen license plate to avoid detection, Clayton said, but they never removed the tracker from Ortega’s car and investigators later learned it was registered to Toribio.
Ortega, who had no criminal record, at the time was living with his famiy and was often seen walking his dog when he wasn’t working as a supervisor at a recycling business, neighbors said.
His brother called him “a very caring person.”
“[Jeremy] was always the loudest in the house, making jokes, uplifting moods,” the brother added. “He was someone that anyone would want to be around.”