Jury says Billings shooting was justified

By The Standard Staff - 03/16/2006

BILLINGS (AP) — A coroner’s jury cleared a Billings man of wrongdoing Wednesday in the May 2005 shooting death of Jordan Ortivez, 20.

Jurors deliberated about an hour before deciding Leonard ‘‘Lenny’’ Larson was justified in shooting Ortivez in Larson’s mobile home last year. The jury heard about five hours of testimony from 12 witnesses, including Larson.

Yellowstone County Chief Deputy Attorney Mark Murphy said conflicting testimony was one of the reasons prosecutors decided to hold the inquest.

Ortivez’s father, Julian, witnessed the shooting and has maintained that Larson had no reason to shoot his son.

‘‘I don’t understand how an individual could try to justify his actions when there was no violence or physical aggression of any kind,’’ he testified.

Larson testified that he shot Ortivez in self defense.

Ortivez and his father went to Larson’s home on May 5 to retrieve Ortivez’s keys from Larson’s roommate. Larson said he had met Ortivez ‘‘a handful of times.’’

Larson, his friend Richard Voorhis and a woman were at Larson’s home when they arrived.

Jordan Ortivez began threatening them and became more agitated when Larson asked him to leave, Voorhis testified. Jordan Ortivez then told them if he didn’t get the keys, he would ‘‘kill everybody in the room,’’ Voorhis said.