Push to remove state attorney Aramis Ayala from murder case
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A state lawmaker is asking Florida Governor Rick Scott to remove a state attorney from a Central Florida murder case.
Rep. Bob Cortes, R-Altamonte Springs, is asking the governor to kick State Attorney Aramis Ayala from an alleged botched murder-for-hire case out of Osceola County.
Deputies with the Osceola County Sheriff's Office say Alexis Ramos-Rivera and his girlfriend, Glorianmarie Quinones Montes, both 22, are charged with first-degree murder. They say the couple was hired by their friend, 35-year-old Ishnar Lopez Ramos, to kill a woman, because Lopez was in love with that woman's boyfriend.
However, deputies say the trio killed the wrong woman, 42-year-old Janice Zengotita-Torres. The body of the wife and mother was discovered on a dirt road in Ormond Beach.
Rep. Cortes calls it an unspeakable tragedy. He wrote a letter to the governor, asking for the case to be reassigned to a state attorney who will to seek the death penalty.
State Attorney Aramis Ayala released a statement saying that the issue has been resolved. Ayala recently established a death penalty review board to determine when a case rises to a level that calls for capital punishment.
A family representative told FOX 35 that they want "divine justice," meaning whatever the maximum penalty prosecutors and a jury think it should be fitting.