TOPEKA — A 29-year-old Topeka man was sentenced today to 13 years nine months in prison in connection with the death of a paramedic who was a Kansas University student.
Victor Anzua-Torres was found guilty of reckless second-degree murder of Ryan Ostendorf, 28, who was killed the night of Dec. 5, 2005, in a head-on collision with a vehicle driven by Anzua-Torres on U.S. Highway 40 near Shawnee Heights Road.
Ostendorf was driving to work at American Medical Response when the accident occurred.
Anzua-Torres had a blood alcohol level of 0.26 percent, more than three times the legal limit of .08, according to authorities.
"My family has an enormous hole where Ryan's life ought to be," Ryan's mother Jo Ann Ostendorf, of Gothenburg, Neb., said.
She said Ryan was a biology student at KU and planned on being a cardiologist.
She and other family members, friends and co-workers gave statements in court at times angrily denouncing Anzua-Torres.
Meagan Kennedy, Ryan's fiance and also a paramedic, said Ryan was her "soul mate and love of my life."
"You left all of us with holes in our hearts that can never be filled," she said.
Anzua-Torres frequently looked down during the statements, sometimes dabbing tears from his eyes.
He asked the family to forgive him and that he felt remorse for Ryan's death.
"I never wanted this to happen," he said.
Shawnee County District Court Judge Nancy Parrish sentenced Anzua-Torres to the maximum for the reckless murder charge 11 years and six months.
The remaining time on his sentence was due to additional charges related to the incident.
She ordered the sentences to run consecutively.
"You have really exhibited a flagrant disregard of our laws," she told him.
Anzua-Torres is an illegal immigrant who has been deported from the United States once before.
He also had a previous charge of drunken driving and was ordered to get treatment, but he ignored the order, authorities said.
After the hearing, Jo Ann Ostendorf said she appreciated Parrish giving him the maximum sentence on the murder charge, but added "for my son's life it is not enough."
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Bubarubu (anonymous) says…
As I did on the first story about this tragedy, I would point people towards the National EMS Memorial Service (www.nemems.org). Those of you who work for AMR in Topeka, push your supervisors to nominate Ryan Ostendorf for inclusion in the memorial service. The forms are available on the organization's website. For those of you who appreciate the work done by EMTs and paramedics, consider a donation to the nemsms. This month, the organization was forced to close their museum, presumably due to a lack of funds. The physical memorial to the inductees is now also unavailable. I would encourage everyone to go to the website and consider making a donation of any size.
Bubarubu (anonymous) says…
I beg everyone's pardon. After I looked around the website a bit longer, I found the press release for this year's induction. Ryan was included among the inductees (http://press.nemsms.org/2006PressRele...), which is a proper dedication. Nonetheless, the organization needs donation in order to maintain a permanent, physical memorial. Please consider a donation.
bankboy119 (anonymous) says…
"Anzua-Torres is an illegal immigrant who has been deported from the United States once before.
He also had a previous charge of drunken driving and was ordered to get treatment, but he ignored the order, authorities said."
And we only lock him up for 13 years and 9 months????? Yeah our justice system works great. He gets free room and board now and he's not even legal.
christie (anonymous) says…
Drunk Driving should be considered a felony. It's nothing less than attempted murder. Had Aznua been convicted of a felony, and sentenced to prison, like he should have been on the first offense, this tragedy would have never happened.
This comes from a first-class Liberal by the way.
ljreader (anonymous) says…
I totally agree, bankboy. It irks me we have to take care of his sorry illegal butt for 13+ years- Even though I'd like to see longer- I don't want to support him longer. Catch 22-
He now joins the 30% of our prison population who are illegal immigrants that have committed crimes beyond coming or staying here illegally.
That's costing taxpayers 3 million bucks per day.
I guess he was just driving around drunk looking for a better life- to take.
TtownKUlivin (anonymous) says…
so i think thats why the judge only gave him 11.5 years, because she heard all the griping about how we were going to have to pay for his tiny cell in JAIL. I guess we could cut his time even shorter so he can be out on the road driving drunk again and kill one of our close family members..my sympathies to the Ostendorf family and fiance.
ljreader (anonymous) says…
Yeah, 13+ years is probably par for the course for this crime- I have never researched that. He'll probably be out before that on parole, I guess. At which time he should promptly be deported so he can re-enter the country once again.
They should give him extra time for coming back after being deported once already.
My condolences to the family. Whatever happens to this bum won't bring their loved one back, but at least he's removed from the streets for a while so he can't hurt anyone else.
bankboy119 (anonymous) says…
The problem with it though ljreader is that his conditions here are STILL better than what he was living like in Mexico. It's welfare and it's ridiculous. Build the fence, keep them out. If they come back, shoot them.
raine (anonymous) says…
people need to read and comprehend the whole story before posting, it says the judge gave him the maximum time she could for the reckless murder charge. i notice that a lot of times that people don't have all the facts clear before they begin to respond to these posts.. a good journalist should be answering the who what where and why of the story.
the problem being by the time you've read all the posts you've forgotten the facts and are answering on speculations.
xenophonschild (anonymous) says…
Get conservativeman to harvest his organs to pay for the costs of his incarceration.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
this death was preventable! he was deported once, then convicted of drunk driving but not deported after that, HUH???
!!!
damn. let's fix our laws so simply if an illegal gets convicted of *any* crime, he's shipped back. but build a good fence, with landmines between two lines of fence electrified. put up signs saying: "you cross, you die." in 100 languages. damn it!