Police ID 'person of interest' in homicide

Just before 6 p.m. Wednesday, Clovis police were called to the 900 block of North Davis Street where they found a man shot to death in a travel trailer parked in a driveway.

Twenty minutes later they were called to a report of a home invasion and hostage situation near Sixth and Reid streets, a few blocks from the scene of the homicide. There they found a man wearing a green wig, black jersey with striped sleeves and grey jeans. A woman inside the apartment told police she ran out when the man entered and threatened to "bash you head in" with a hammer.

The man, believed to be "heavily under the influence of narcotics," was "talking crazy," breaking windows, destroying items inside the home, yelling, "heavily irate" and sweating profusely, court records show.

When police arrived, Miguel Ortiz, 33, "grabbed a dart and was reaching backwards to throw it at officers." Then when officers told him to drop the dart and get on the ground, he complied, records show.

Ortiz was jailed and charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and criminal damage to property. He was being held without bond Friday in the Curry County Adult Detention Center.

He is also "linked as matching the descriptions given" from the nearby homicide, court records show.

Police on Friday said no one has been charged in connection with the homicide. District Attorney Quentin Ray and police said Ortiz is a "person of interest" in the slaying, but they had no physical evidence placing him at the scene. They were gathering fingerprints and DNA to send to a crime lab for analysis, Ray said.

Police Capt. Robert Telles said witnesses saw a man matching Ortiz' description – "clothing description and the manner in which he was acting" – near the site of the slaying. Witnesses described the clothing as "a zebra outfit," Telles said.

"We're trying to get enough evidence to definitely link him (to the homicide) so we can charge him. He's definitely a suspect. We're not looking at anybody else (as of Friday morning)," Telles said.

Authorities on Friday still had not made a positive identification of the homicide victim. Telles said the man had no identification on him. Investigators had been told he may have been from Colorado or Florida. They estimated his age as mid-30s to early 40s. They'd been unable to locate family as of Friday morning.

"He is a transient from another state but has been living in Clovis for about a year from what I have heard," Deputy Police Chief Trevor Thron told The News.

Telles said the man in the trailer was shot at least once. No gun was found at the scene, but police found a gun under a house about a block from the shooting. "We don't know if it's 'the' gun (used in the slaying)," Telles said.

Prior to Wednesday, Clovis police had most recently encountered Ortiz on the evening of Dec. 13 when he was stopped on a bicycle without a light. The officer soon learned Ortiz had an active warrant related to the unlawful theft of a motor vehicle.

Before the officer could take Ortiz into custody for the alleged auto theft, Ortiz threw his bicycle toward the officer and began running on West 21st Street toward Greene Acres Lake, court records show.

When the officer caught him, they fought and Ortiz was tazed and arrested. During the chase, records show something fell from Ortiz's person. Police recovered two pistols near the area where Ortiz was detained.

Telles said Friday he was not aware of that incident but that guns confiscated during an arrest are held in evidence and would not have been returned to the suspect.

After the December arrest, Ortiz was held in the Curry County Adult Detention Center until Jan. 13. That's when he posted the required 10% of a $1,500 bond and was released, jail records show.

Wednesday's slaying marked the second homicide in the city this month. Clovis' first homicide of 2025 occurred early in the morning of Jan. 11. Two teenage boys were arrested and charged in connection with the death of Tony Cristan, 18.