Two sentenced in teen's death

RALEIGH -- Two of the men found responsible for Raleigh middle schooler Gelnirys Ortega's fatal shooting in a botched home invasion received their prison sentences this afternoon.

Rashaan Ali will be sent to prison for life for his conviction of first-degree murder. Ian Wattley was given a 16 to 20 month prison sentence for his his involuntary manslaughter conviction. He could be out of prison in less than three months, however, after he was given credit for the more than year he spend in jail awaiting a trial.

The two men were found guilty last week by a Wake jury and sentencing was delayed until today in the Wake County Courthouse in front of Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour. Prosecutors believe Ali was a shooter while Wattley's defense attorney argued that he had been accompanying a friend and didn't' know about the planned robbery at Gelnirys' apartment.

Gelnirys, a seventh-grader at West Millbrook Middle School, died when she was shot in the right eye on May 1, 2007, as she sat on the couch in the Green Road apartment she shared with her mother and several others. Prosecutors contend she was an innocent victim in the wrong place when a group of men rushed into the apartment looking to collect $60,000 that a man visiting the apartment owed for drugs.

Her mother, Milagros Ortega, was also shot and injured in the attack. A letter she wrote was read in court today, while she described how her pain at the loss of her daughter has left her with little will to live.

"I often think that one day she will come back to us," Ortega wrote. "I know I'm never going to come to terms with what happened." Several other men faced charges in connection with Gelnirys' killing. So far, Wilson Roldao and Shawn Taylor, both thought to be accessories who helped other suspects flee the state, have agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges.

For a fuller account of the hearing and to learn more about Gelnirys' life, please pick up the print edition tomorrow or check with www.newsobserver.com.