Guilty: 16 year old convicted of pickax murders

A man who was 16 years old in 2011 when three members of an El Rancho family were killed with a pickax has been convicted in a retrial of murder and other crimes.

District Court jurors on Friday convicted 22-year-old Nicholas Ortiz in the killings of Dixie and Lloyd Ortiz and their special-needs adult son, Steven.

The defendant was not related to the Ortiz family.

In June a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

In this second trial, prosecutors portrayed Ortiz as a calculating young man with a theft-related motive. Defense attorneys focused on the lack of physical evidence tying Ortiz to the crime, suggesting he was framed.

Ortiz faces up to 30 years in prison for each murder count and shorter prison terms on his other convictions.