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Monday, May 19, 2025 1:13:21 AM

Jury acquits Palma

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Posted on Apr 15 2005
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The Superior Court yesterday acquitted a man who was charged in the mauling death of a painter at a hotel parking lot sometime last year.

A jury acquitted Edgardo Palma on all of the remaining charges against him—involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and battery, assault and battery and disturbing the peace.

Earlier, the court had dismissed murder and voluntary manslaughter charges against Palma, who was accused of fatally mauling Luciano Ortiz at the parking lot of the Dai-Ichi Hotel Saipan Beach on Aug. 13, 2004. Ortiz, who sustained a fractured skull, died after days of confinement at the Commonwealth Health Center.

Associate judge Ramona Manglona acquitted Palma and ordered the defendant’s release from custody after the jury handed down its verdict. The jury reached its decision yesterday morning after a quick deliberation on the trial, which lasted more than a week.

Palma sobbed uncontrollably after hearing the jury’s verdict, according to chief public defender Masood Karimipour. He said the Corrections Department released Palma from custody yesterday.

“Where does Palma go now to get his name back,” asked Karimipour. “He’s been devastated by this [case].” He said Palma is currently unemployed and is in the process of seeking employment.

Karimipour lambasted the Attorney General’s Office for filing murder charges against Palma, “when neither the facts nor the law justified it [filing].” Government prosecutors David Hutton and John Eaton could not be reached for comment.

Karimipour claimed that Palma simply had to defend himself in an altercation with Ortiz. “While Ortiz’s death was a tragedy, it was a tragedy he brought upon himself.”

He said that Ortiz was drunk when he followed Palma to the hotel’s parking lot. He said Ortiz became jealous of Palma, whom the former had seen conversing with a woman he had been pursuing romantically. Palma and Ortiz figured in a fight at the hotel’s parking lot, resulting in the latter falling to the ground.

Assistant public defender Charlotte Tenorio joined Karimipour in handling the defense of Palma.

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