Longview man gets 13 years for tire iron assault

LONGVIEW — A Longview man charged with beating two men with a tire iron, leaving one with a fractured skull, has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison.

The Daily News reports that Fernando Jaca-Ortiz was sentenced this week for assault with a deadly weapon enhancement.

Cowlitz County Deputy Prosecutor Jason Laurine says Jaca-Ortiz had been drinking with a friend at a restaurant when they went outside and got into a fight with Juan Wandestrand-Ledesma.

Laurine says Jaca-Ortiz grabbed a tire iron from his Ford Expedition and starting striking Wanderstrand-Ledesma and Juventino Manzano-Quiroz, who had tried to intervene.

The incident left Wanderstrand-Ledesma with a fractured skull and brain hemorrhaging. Manzano-Quiroz was taken to a hospital, where doctors reattached his nose.

Jaca-Ortiz had no felony convictions prior to the incident.