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Illegal Farm Worker Charged With Sexual Assault Of 11-Year Old In Walnut Hill
November 14, 2022
A former Walnut Hill farm worker is now in the Escambia County Jail, charged with the sexual assault on a victim under the age of 12 in a case that led to an Amber Alert back in July.
Brijido Manriquez-Ortiz, 43, was extradited from Laredo, Texas. If he is convicted as charged, he faces a maximum of the death penalty or a minimum of life in prison.
On July 28, an 11-year old girl was discovered missing from a home on Arthur Brown Road in Walnut Hill. Simmons said she was first believed to be in the company of Manriquez-Ortiz based on a note that was left behind and his relationship with her.
About two weeks prior, she was seen kissing Manriquez-Ortiz on the lips. He was employed by Steve’s Catfish Farm and she frequently went to the business, according to an arrest report. He was fired and given a ride to Atlanta, Georgia.
The father told NorthEscambia.com and investigators that he found a cut screen on their Walnut Hill home, and the girl was missing. She left a note behind indicating that she would be with Brijido-Ortez. According to an arrest report, she placed a call to Manriquez-Ortiz at 9:45 p.m. on July 27, and sexually explicit texts and photographs were sent back and forth between the victim and Manriquez-Ortiz.
A security camera at the Escambia Grain elevator nearly across the street recorded a white vehicle pulling into the victim’s home at 10:08 p.m. on July 27.
An Amber Alert was issued the following morning when the girl was found missing. Manriquez-Ortiz was located in Laredo, Texas, and questioned at the FBI office in Laredo. He remained in custody there until his extradition back to Escambia County.
The girl was located by law enforcement in Foley, Alabama, in a white truck that was previously reported stolen by Steve’s Catfish Farm. The victim was interviewed at Gulf Coast Kid’s House, The details of that interview were redacted from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office report, but it states that Manriquez-Ortiz and the victim had sexual intercourse.
Manriquez-Ortiz is a Mexican citizen and illegally remained in the United States after his work visa expired in 2020.
Pictured inset: The victim’s father showed NorthEscambia.com this window with a cut screen where he said his 11-year old daughter left their home with 43-year old Brijido Manriquez-Ortiz. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
25 Responses to “Illegal Farm Worker Charged With Sexual Assault Of 11-Year Old In Walnut Hill”
Don’t care if he picks vegetables or cleans the outhouse he raped a little girl. If he wasn’t here she wouldn’t have been. Change my mind.
I have no idea of Steve’s Farm’s arrangements for the veggy-pickers, but I know other farmers that and a lot of times during picking season, a crew will show up for harvest. It might be 20 guys/gals show up in an old school bus. The main guy will for sure be legal, and pays taxes on the money paid to him, and then he pays the workers himself. So they are basically subcontractors to the farmer and there’s no way for him to know the status of their work permit/green card. Same thing happens at the cotton gin every year. I wouldn’t doubt if this is the deal, because it’s usually kinda hard for the farmer to just go out and find 20 individual Mexicans when it’s time to pick beans.
@Bob
Don’t even try to waste your time on trying to have an intellectual conversation about the systemic problems with locals in Escambia county.
@Taxpayer
221k immigrants entered the country legally, and millions are currently on waiting lists. Many people have been waiting 20+ years for permission to enter the US. Is it any surprise many of them are giving up on legal entry?
@Ted
Sure. Let’s ask the Department of Homeland Security. They’re the experts on protecting the border and would know better than… Oh, the DHS’s opinion is that border walls are a waste of taxpayer funds.
I do agree. If a kid is hungry, let’s feed them. If they need an education, let’s provide it to them. It shouldn’t matter where their parents came from or what zip code they live in. We shouldn’t have children living in poverty in the wealthiest country on Earth.
@Jennifer Johnson
My comment was a reply to sam, who said that everyone who isn’t a citizen (including legal immigrants) should be deported. I was pointing out to him why that is stupid.
I agree with y’all. What this guy did is disgusting and he absolutely belongs in prison. I just don’t agree with all of the people that are using him as evidence that “immigrants are bad”.
Two words… “Smith and Wesson”..
@Bob
The article specifically states that Mr. Ortiz’s work Visa expired in 2020 and was in the country illegally . So yeah , he was here illegally.
@bob
Ask anyone at the border if walls work and I would like to see my tax dollars work for kids and vets that need it not to be handed out just because you crossed the border in the middle of the night
According to DHS, “221,000 noncitizens obtained lawful permanent resident (LPR) status in the second quarter (Q2) of Fiscal Year (FY) 2022″ so there IS a legal path to immigration to the US. The issue is the masses of folks who choose to circumvent the process and enter illegally. I’m the child of immigrants who came to the US from Germany after WWII. They were required to show proof that they had housing and support from family/friends or other sponsors before arrival so they didn’t immediately become a burden on the system. They also needed to speak and understand at least a workable level of English so they could attain gainful employment once here. That is the kind of immigration reform we need-no new laws required but simply following the laws already in place, going back to what worked for decades.
@sam
Just because someone isn’t a citizen doesn’t mean that they are in the country illegally. There are plenty of people who live, work, and pay taxes here that are not eligible for citizenship.
Our immigration system needs a massive overhaul. Right now, it can take years, or even decades, for an application for permanent residence to be approved. If we really want to get rid of illegal immigration, we need to make legal immigration viable.
Personally, I am perfectly fine with my tax dollars going to provide food and an education for a kid who is likely living in poverty rather than wasting them on a stupid border wall that does nothing or overinflated police budgets.
if you are NOT a citizen you don’t belong in this country. you don’t pay taxes, you can’t vote, you put your kids in the schools that tax payers support. it just goes on and on. GO BACK HOME AND COME BACK LEGALLY.
Being an illegal is a moot point.
Being a child molesting pedophile is not.
All you folks talking about illegal this and illegal that, American citizens won’t work jobs like this. I agree the jobs need to pay more but then people won’t pay the price to support them and they’ll shut down anyway. When lazy butt Americans start really wanting to work, we won’t need the illegals.
Hopefully the girl and her family can get her past this and retain some bit of normalcy in the future.
As for catching illegal immigrants it’s not as easy as you think. Way in the past in another life I was a manager for a retail chain. When hiring new employees, I sent the info to HR to run background checks. One guy we had hired later got fired for internal theft, but it wasn’t until then that we found out he was using a false SS number.
He wasn’t an illegal immigrant, but the point is how could the background check company not realize that the info from the SS number (I think he stole his mother’s) did not match any of the other info on his application? I never saw the results of the background check, only if the person “passed” or not.
If Mr. Manriquez-Ortiz used a stolen SS number how is Steve’s Farm supposed to know he’s illegal (unless I go with the assumption anyone that is Hispanic must be illegal)?
This is horrendous, she will be scarred forever.
Also “Parents! Children do not need cellphones!”
It provides access to them, and access to pornography as well via email and the internet, it sexualizes children at an early age. I can’t help but think that the garbage that comes through the internet and email accounts accessible with cellphones gets children curious and sets them up for this kind of predation. People, look at all the unwanted porn that comes in email spam folders, it should be illegal. Children unwittingly open it up and view it.
Lisa B, she didn’t have sex with him, he raped her! She was only 11 years old, a child.
Second, yes people are focusing on the fact that he is an illegal. We do have laws. One can come here with a work visa and roof all the houses he wants. Just come legally so that we know who you are, what you are up to, and how to find you if necessary. It’s really pretty simple. And, yes, it would be much better if our businesses would follow our laws. Maybe business owners should be held responsible when caught.
Crime is everywhere and small crimes lead to bigger crimes. Crossing over the border illegally is a crime that just lead to a bigger crime. If this country allows people to commit small crimes with no penalty they will continue on to other crimes, much larger crimes, and expect the same.
Another way to say it is that 4/5 are more upset that he was an illegal alien than he was a rapist.
Why are so many people focused on the fact that he was here illegally and not on the fact that he raped an 11 year old CHILD?!
What a shame !!! And to think this man knew all along what he was doing !!!! A child predator!!! And when you are convicted of your crime the people inside the prison will finish you off completely when they find you out and they will !!! This child’s life is currently ruined because of you!!!
What’s wrong with this country is that you only heard “illegal immigrants”. So far only ONE of FIVE comments seem to have read about an 11 year old girl had sex with a 43 year old man.
What happened to that little girl was awful and that piece of trash wouldn’t have made it to Atlanta if that was my child. But, south of the border folks aren’t any more likely to be child molestors than anyone else. All these folks complaining about people hiring illegals, how about you get yourselves out there and work the farm, pick the watermelons and cabbages and tomatoes, roof them houses, work the cattle. What? You don’t want to do hard manual labor for not a lot of money? Oh, you want to be paid $20+hr and have 2 weeks vacation, weekends off, sick leave and health insurance. Ok then, hope you like paying $12 lb for tomatoes. When the hurricanes come and tons of houses are destroyed and everybody needs a new roof, hope you don’t mind waiting months or years to get houses rebuilt or roofs put back on because the construction industry and agricultural industry can’t find nearly enough labor to meet the demand..
I’m actually shocked to learn that a large, area business relied in illegal aliens for help. I thought businesses had to use that everify (or whatever it’s called), or at least had to send in personal info to the government when they were hired (name, dob, ssn, etc). I will not go back to their business, ever. Too many citizens needs jobs, don’t care where you are from, just as long as you are legally allowed to be here and legally allowed to work)
How do you get away with working illegal immigrants. I guess if the government opens the borders it can’t be considered illegal?
Thank you for employing illegals. Very helpful to our society.
Death Penalty and nothing less!