CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – The man responsible for a deadly shootout in Belmont three years ago was sentenced Friday, January 9, to more than 18 years in prison.
Twenty-six-year-old Ricardo Franco Ordaz of Texas pleaded guilty in June of 2025 to counts of conspiracy to kidnap and transporting an alien.
Ordaz, along with another man, smuggled an undocumented immigrant to Charlottesville in January of 2023. The shooting broke out after an altercation at the location where Ordaz arranged to demand ransom for the kidnapped person.
The other kidnapper was killed in the fight.
Ordaz was later arrested in Texas in September 2024, almost one year after the incident.
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