In the early hours of a Monday morning, on September 26, 2016, the life of 30-year-old Jonathan Methot, a Caucasian male, was cut short in his apartment on West Cutts Street in Biddeford, Maine. Just after 1 a.m., police were called to the duplex at the end of the dead-end street for a report of a shooting. Inside, they found Methot, who had been fatally shot. At the time of the incident, several people were present in the duplex, which was known to local law enforcement.
Investigators immediately treated the death as a homicide, suspecting it was not a random act of violence but rather that the individuals involved knew each other. The possibility of the shooting being drug-related was a key focus of the investigation from the outset.
The investigation into Methot's death quickly led to a person of interest. Within days, Maine State Police charged 22-year-old Timothy L. Ortiz of Brooklyn, New York, with murder. Ortiz was already in custody at the Cumberland County Jail on a probation violation related to prior charges for aggravated sex trafficking and unlawful furnishing of scheduled drugs. The arrest of a New York man in connection with a fatal shooting in a quiet Maine neighborhood brought the issue of out-of-state drug activity to the forefront of the community's concerns. Methot himself had a criminal history that included drug-related offenses and domestic violence assault.
Following his arrest for the murder of Jonathan Methot, Timothy Ortiz made his first court appearance in early October 2016. He did not enter a plea at that time. Methot's family was present for the proceedings but did not speak to the media. It was revealed that Methot lived with his mother and was the father of an eight-year-old son. Ortiz was held without bail as the case proceeded through the judicial system. Despite the murder charge, the resolution of the case would not bring the expected conviction. In June 2018, a jury found Timothy Ortiz not guilty of murder. His defense attorney argued that the state had not met its burden of proof and pointed out that Methot had been intoxicated and had used cocaine in the hours leading up to the fatal confrontation, which reportedly stemmed from a dispute over a small drug sale.
