Police Officer's Ex-Girlfriend Gets 10 Years For Plot To Kidnap Woman She Blamed For Breakup
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The ex-girlfriend of a Chicago police officer assigned to Mayor Lori Lightfoot's security detail has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, after pleading guilty to a plot to kidnap and kill a woman she blamed for their breakup.
Lissette Ortiz, 56, was charged in 2019 with multiple felony counts accusing her of trying to hire someone to kidnap and kill a 62-year-old woman, who she blamed for her breakup with the officer. The person she tried to hire turned out to be an undercover cop.
Last week, Ortiz pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated armed kidnapping, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to drop other more serious charges, including solicitation of murder for hire.
A Cook County judge gave her credit for 697 days she had already spent in custody, and Ortiz is now being held at the Logan Correctional Center in downstate Illinois.
As CBS 2's Steven Graves reported in 2019, Cook County prosecutors said Ortiz concocted a calculated plan.
Prosecutors said after breaking up with her police officer girlfriend in the summer of 2019, Ortiz believed the officer started a romantic relationship with a 62-year-old woman, who Ortiz blamed for their breakup. Sources said Ortiz is the former girlfriend of a police officer who at the time was assigned to Mayor Lori Lightfoot's security detail. It's not clear if that officer is still on the mayor's security detail.
Seeking to have the 62-year-old woman kidnapped and killed, prosecutors said Ortiz first approached a man identified only as "witness 2" on Nov. 18, 2019, and said she wanted to hire him or someone he knew to abduct the woman and bring the victim to her so she could "take care of the rest."
Prosecutors said Ortiz offered to pay that witness $5,000 for the kidnapping, or $500 and a large TV if he introduced her to someone else to carry out the kidnapping.
After that witness contacted Chicago police, he arranged for Ortiz to meet with an undercover officer posing as a kidnapper for hire.
The officer met Ortiz two days later in the parking lot of a business near her home, and got in her car. She drove the officer around for about an hour, and said she wanted the officer to kidnap the victim, drive her to a remote location, and set the vehicle on fire. Ortiz also told the officer she wanted the victim to know she was responsible for the murder, and preferred she still be alive when the vehicle was set on fire.
Prosecutors said Ortiz told the officer she planned to be somewhere else at the time of the kidnapping and murder, because she knew police would suspect her of the killing, and she wanted to have an alibi.
Ortiz wanted to carry out the plot before Thanksgiving, so the victim couldn't celebrate the holiday in the same home Ortiz had shared with her ex-girlfriend, according to prosecutors. She offered to pay the officer $5,000 for the kidnapping and murder.
Prosecutors said Ortiz planned to flee to Puerto Rico after the victim was killed.
After leaving the meeting with the undercover officer, she was arrested. A specialized unit within the Chicago Police Department conducted the investigation.
With credit for nearly two years in custody already, Ortiz is eligible for parole in November 2024.
