City man pleads guilty to charge of murder
Police said Olenik was killed while sitting in his car.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jonah F. Ortiz, 26, of Shirley Road has pleaded guilty to killing a Thalia Avenue man in downtown Youngstown 18 months ago.
Ortiz, indicted in March 2006 on a charge of aggravated murder with a gun specification in the Aug. 8, 2005, shooting death of Michael S. Olenik Jr., 28, had been scheduled to go to trial Monday before Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, but he accepted a plea agreement before a jury was seated.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of murder with a gun specification and was immediately sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on the murder count plus three years on the gun specification.
Authorities said that Olenik's house had been burglarized shortly before the slaying and that he suspected Ortiz of the crime.
City police said Olenik, who had two young daughters, was found in his car, which had stopped sideways on East Federal Street, facing south in the eastbound lane. The front end of the car was smashed and the airbags had deployed.
Police found five bullet holes near the passenger-side door and said Olenik was slumped over on the passenger seat. He had bee shot in the head and right side of the chest.
Five 9mm bullet casings were found in a pile of shattered glass at the scene, police said. Family members said Olenik, who was employed as a sous-chef at a Boardman restaurant, was driving to a friend's house on the North Side when he was killed around 10:45 p.m.
A witness told police that he heard gunfire and saw a blue Nissan speeding away from the crime scene headed toward the East Side on Himrod Avenue. Olenik's death was the 20th homicide in the city in 2005.