El Paso County judge knew repeat offender was violating probation before giving it again

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- The decisions made by an El Paso County Judge are once again under the microscope after 13 Investigates uncovered he gave a repeat offender, who previously pleaded guilty to three separate felony crimes, probation in 2022. Our team learned when this offender walked into District Judge David Shakes' courtroom, his probation officers were filing complaints saying he was refusing to comply with his court-ordered supervision.

Shawn Conti, a defense attorney with Martin & Conti law in Pueblo, says all judges have systems in their courtroom that allow them to look up defendants' prior criminal history. This system also allows judges to see if people are in compliance with their probation or not. In this case, if District Judge Shakes did that, he would have seen that 25-year-old Zachary Ortega was actively being revoked from probation before Shakes offered it to him again.

On Friday, 13 Investigates pulled back the veil on how Ortega, a now four-time convicted felon, was re-arrested last week on three felony warrants. Those warrants were tied to three different felony cases in Pueblo and El Paso counties where he was given probation even after he was continually re-offending.

On June 12, Pueblo police arrested Ortega at a Motel 6. He was considered a felon in possession of a weapon in violation of Colorado law. At the motel, police said Ortega refused to exit a room there. Police eventually deployed tactical gas into his room. However, he tried to unsuccessfully escape through the roof.

Back in 2016, Ortega pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced to four years in the Colorado Youthful Offender System, a juvenile prison designed to be a rehabilitation facility for teens convicted of crimes.

When he was released on parole, Ortega pleaded guilty to two separate felony crimes in Pueblo, possession of a weapon by a previous offender and attempted aggravated robbery, a class-4 felony in Colorado. In both cases, Pueblo County District Judge Allison Ernst gave Ortega three years on probation. It only took Ortega two months on that supervision for his probation officers to begin filing revocation documents.

Ortega also traveled to Fountain in February 2022, stole a car, and pleaded guilty to doing it. District Judge David Shakes was aware of Ortega's three prior felony convictions, yet still decided to give him probation.

"If I were his defense attorney, that would be the deal that I'd be trying to get him," Conti said. "It seems to be a really good deal because he's continuing to get chance after chance, despite the fact that he's picking up these new cases, which are the basis of his revocation. He's picking up these new cases while on probation."

Conti says probation is often people's "second chance" to rehabilitate their life. However, he says this case has a lot of "red flags" that are too obvious to ignore.

"Probation is your second chance when you're picking up new cases. Why do you get a third chance or a fourth chance or multiple chances," Conti questioned.

At the time of Ortega's sentencing in his El Paso County case, there were numerous court documents filed by probation officers saying he wasn't complying, but even after picking up new cases his Pueblo, Probation officer Bethany Streyele said she recommended Ortega be revoked, and then re-instate a new probation sentence of three years.

That's exactly what happened. After Ortega was sentenced in all three cases, on December 15, 2022, Judge Ernst allowed his probation to be reinstated instead of going to jail.

"It's quite possible that the probation officer is there and saying, Judge, I could continue to work with and get him another chance. I think I could make a change in his life and get him out of the justice system," Conti said.

13 Investigates asked the 4th and 10th Judicial District Attorney's offices in El Paso and Pueblo counties respectively if they objected to probation in any of Ortega's cases. El Paso County DA Michael Allen's office says they are looking into our request.

Pueblo County DA Jeff Chostner said they were unable to comment on open cases now that they are prosecuting Ortega for additional crimes. Chostner did express frustration over Judge Ernst's decision-making in Ortega's cases which were considered "open sentences," also known as sentences where the judge has complete discretion to sentence the person as they please.

Judge Ernst and Shakes continue to refuse to answer any of 13 Investigates questions about their decisions in Ortega's cases because of the "judicial code of conduct" that doesn't allow them to comment on ongoing criminal cases.