thedrifter
04-07-07, 08:49 AM
He spent 3 hours next to a loaded .38
Tried to sympathize? with escaped prisoner during ordeal Monday
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Matthew Marx
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
He was going to take his 78-year old mother home from a Youngstown hospital and then play golf with his son, who is on leave from the Marines.
But those plans changed when a fugitive put a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in the face of Richard Orto.
"He said, Put the car in park and move over.? " Orto recalled. "I noticed the gun was cocked, and that was about all I saw. I moved over."
The revolver stayed cocked for nearly an hour, Orto said, describing the three-hour ride in his mother?s sedan. Orto shared cigarettes and chatted with his captor, 34-year-old escaped prisoner Billy Jack Fitzmorris.
"He was a desperate, nervous individual. His hands were sweating profusely, and he was mumbling to himself," Orto said Thursday night. "He was in a hurry. I tried to sympathize with him. I wanted to calm him down."
The encounter on Monday started in a Youngstown hospital parking lot and ended in a Powell strip center, when Orto, a 53-year-old auto mechanic, saw his chance and bolted from the car as Fitzmorris rooted through his mother?s trunk.
Fitzmorris, facing up to 45 years in prison on drug and weapons convictions, is accused of robbing a bank across the street from the strip center and another in Upper Arlington before law officers saw him on I-70 on the West Side and chased him into Hilliard, where he crashed the car and took a hostage.
Since releasing the hostage and surrendering, Fitzmorris has been held in a cell at the Franklin County jail, separated from other prisoners.
Orto, of Austintown, a suburb of Youngstown, had driven his mother?s sedan to St. Elizabeth Hospital to pick her up at 10 a.m. on Monday. It is easier for her to get in and out of the sedan than Orto?s pickup.
His 20-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Richard Orto Jr., had returned home late Sunday night from San Diego, where he is stationed.
"My son was still sleeping. The plan was to take Mom home, get her medication and go play golf," Orto said.
He thought nothing was unusual as Fitzmorris approached in a uniform he had taken from the prison guard he overpowered at the hospital, but then he saw the revolver pointed through the driver?s side window.
"He made me buckle up and buckle him up. He had the gun on me. I said, ?Yes, sir,? " Orto said. "He said if I was OK he would be OK and that he hadn?t hurt anyone."
Fitzmorris ordered him to remove the battery from his cell phone so it couldn?t be tracked. In no time, they were on the highway.
Orto made conversation, hoping to get a feel for whether he should risk jumping out of the car at 70 mph.
"He said his name was Billy Ray. We were on a first-name basis as we talked. He asked me if I had cigarettes. He said, ?Hey Rick, why don?t we light one up?? I was his best buddy. You don?t want to hurt your best buddy."
The fugitive claimed he had worked as a bricklayer and furniture mover but got in trouble with the law when he was persuaded to make some fast money on a drug deal, Orto recalled. He said he had pleaded guilty to felony drug charges and explained how he got away.
When the carjacking began, Orto had six Winston cigarettes left, he said. After they smoked them all, Orto persuaded Fitzmorris to stop for more. He parked in front of a BP station on a secluded exit on I-71 about an hour north of I-270.
Orto decided not to try to escape because the car was parked right by the door, in Fitzmorris? line of sight.
"I looked around and there was nowhere to hide, and I just hung in there."
Using Orto?s wallet, Fitzmorris bought three packs of Marlboros and some juice. The escapee apologized for not buying Orto?s cigarette brand.
"I said at this point I didn?t care," he said.
"If you?ve never been there, you don?t know what to think. ? I thought about my family, my kids, my mom."
Orto pretended to sympathize with his captor until they got to Powell, where Fitzmorris drove past a bank several times.
"He led me to believe he was looking for someone. I?ve never been in trouble with the law. I?m used to busting my knuckles, working all day, solving problems."
About 1:30 p.m., Fitzmorris pulled into a strip center parking lot across from the bank, shut the engine off and took the keys. Orto quietly unbuckled his seat belt and unlocked his passenger-side door.
"He had gotten out of the car and was rooting around the trunk. He started shoving plastic bags that my mom had in the trunk into his jacket. He shoved the gun down into the sleeve of his jacket," Orto said. "Then he zipped up the jacket almost to his neck. I thought, ?There?s no way in hell he can unzip that jacket and pull out that gun until my ass was halfway across that parking lot.? "
Orto?s hand crawled onto the door handle; he opened the passenger door and bolted from his mother?s Chevrolet Impala, running in a zigzag toward the nearest shop.
"Thank God I didn?t get caught in it," he said of the seat belt, "and the door opened and I was out of there.
"As I was exiting the vehicle, ? I heard him say, ?Oh, no you don?t. Don?t try it.? "
After running about 50 yards, Orto heard what sounded like a car door slam shut and the screech of tires.
"I felt safe when I heard the tires squealing. I didn?t think he would come after me."
He ran into a UPS Store, where he screamed, "Call the police!" to workers Angie Hinzey and Pat Callahan.
"Their eyes were like saucers at that point," he said.
Orto told a 911 operator that he had been carjacked from Youngstown by a man who claimed to be an escaped convict from the prison there. As he waited for radio-room dispatchers to confirm that a prisoner had escaped in Youngstown, Orto could hear the report of a bank robbery across the street.
Delaware County deputy sheriffs were the first to arrive, Orto said. He was taken to Powell police headquarters, where he waited for his son and the son?s girlfriend to come pick him up.
"I watched the action unfold on the television. I saw my mother?s car get wrecked," he said.
"I didn?t eat until 9 that night. Powell cops offered, but I couldn?t eat. I wanted a beer."
mmarx@dispatch.com?
Ellie
Tried to sympathize? with escaped prisoner during ordeal Monday
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Matthew Marx
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
He was going to take his 78-year old mother home from a Youngstown hospital and then play golf with his son, who is on leave from the Marines.
But those plans changed when a fugitive put a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in the face of Richard Orto.
"He said, Put the car in park and move over.? " Orto recalled. "I noticed the gun was cocked, and that was about all I saw. I moved over."
The revolver stayed cocked for nearly an hour, Orto said, describing the three-hour ride in his mother?s sedan. Orto shared cigarettes and chatted with his captor, 34-year-old escaped prisoner Billy Jack Fitzmorris.
"He was a desperate, nervous individual. His hands were sweating profusely, and he was mumbling to himself," Orto said Thursday night. "He was in a hurry. I tried to sympathize with him. I wanted to calm him down."
The encounter on Monday started in a Youngstown hospital parking lot and ended in a Powell strip center, when Orto, a 53-year-old auto mechanic, saw his chance and bolted from the car as Fitzmorris rooted through his mother?s trunk.
Fitzmorris, facing up to 45 years in prison on drug and weapons convictions, is accused of robbing a bank across the street from the strip center and another in Upper Arlington before law officers saw him on I-70 on the West Side and chased him into Hilliard, where he crashed the car and took a hostage.
Since releasing the hostage and surrendering, Fitzmorris has been held in a cell at the Franklin County jail, separated from other prisoners.
Orto, of Austintown, a suburb of Youngstown, had driven his mother?s sedan to St. Elizabeth Hospital to pick her up at 10 a.m. on Monday. It is easier for her to get in and out of the sedan than Orto?s pickup.
His 20-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Richard Orto Jr., had returned home late Sunday night from San Diego, where he is stationed.
"My son was still sleeping. The plan was to take Mom home, get her medication and go play golf," Orto said.
He thought nothing was unusual as Fitzmorris approached in a uniform he had taken from the prison guard he overpowered at the hospital, but then he saw the revolver pointed through the driver?s side window.
"He made me buckle up and buckle him up. He had the gun on me. I said, ?Yes, sir,? " Orto said. "He said if I was OK he would be OK and that he hadn?t hurt anyone."
Fitzmorris ordered him to remove the battery from his cell phone so it couldn?t be tracked. In no time, they were on the highway.
Orto made conversation, hoping to get a feel for whether he should risk jumping out of the car at 70 mph.
"He said his name was Billy Ray. We were on a first-name basis as we talked. He asked me if I had cigarettes. He said, ?Hey Rick, why don?t we light one up?? I was his best buddy. You don?t want to hurt your best buddy."
The fugitive claimed he had worked as a bricklayer and furniture mover but got in trouble with the law when he was persuaded to make some fast money on a drug deal, Orto recalled. He said he had pleaded guilty to felony drug charges and explained how he got away.
When the carjacking began, Orto had six Winston cigarettes left, he said. After they smoked them all, Orto persuaded Fitzmorris to stop for more. He parked in front of a BP station on a secluded exit on I-71 about an hour north of I-270.
Orto decided not to try to escape because the car was parked right by the door, in Fitzmorris? line of sight.
"I looked around and there was nowhere to hide, and I just hung in there."
Using Orto?s wallet, Fitzmorris bought three packs of Marlboros and some juice. The escapee apologized for not buying Orto?s cigarette brand.
"I said at this point I didn?t care," he said.
"If you?ve never been there, you don?t know what to think. ? I thought about my family, my kids, my mom."
Orto pretended to sympathize with his captor until they got to Powell, where Fitzmorris drove past a bank several times.
"He led me to believe he was looking for someone. I?ve never been in trouble with the law. I?m used to busting my knuckles, working all day, solving problems."
About 1:30 p.m., Fitzmorris pulled into a strip center parking lot across from the bank, shut the engine off and took the keys. Orto quietly unbuckled his seat belt and unlocked his passenger-side door.
"He had gotten out of the car and was rooting around the trunk. He started shoving plastic bags that my mom had in the trunk into his jacket. He shoved the gun down into the sleeve of his jacket," Orto said. "Then he zipped up the jacket almost to his neck. I thought, ?There?s no way in hell he can unzip that jacket and pull out that gun until my ass was halfway across that parking lot.? "
Orto?s hand crawled onto the door handle; he opened the passenger door and bolted from his mother?s Chevrolet Impala, running in a zigzag toward the nearest shop.
"Thank God I didn?t get caught in it," he said of the seat belt, "and the door opened and I was out of there.
"As I was exiting the vehicle, ? I heard him say, ?Oh, no you don?t. Don?t try it.? "
After running about 50 yards, Orto heard what sounded like a car door slam shut and the screech of tires.
"I felt safe when I heard the tires squealing. I didn?t think he would come after me."
He ran into a UPS Store, where he screamed, "Call the police!" to workers Angie Hinzey and Pat Callahan.
"Their eyes were like saucers at that point," he said.
Orto told a 911 operator that he had been carjacked from Youngstown by a man who claimed to be an escaped convict from the prison there. As he waited for radio-room dispatchers to confirm that a prisoner had escaped in Youngstown, Orto could hear the report of a bank robbery across the street.
Delaware County deputy sheriffs were the first to arrive, Orto said. He was taken to Powell police headquarters, where he waited for his son and the son?s girlfriend to come pick him up.
"I watched the action unfold on the television. I saw my mother?s car get wrecked," he said.
"I didn?t eat until 9 that night. Powell cops offered, but I couldn?t eat. I wanted a beer."
mmarx@dispatch.com?
Ellie