Paralyzed Marine Veteran Jimmy Friesenhahn Hospitalized, Delaying Testimony in 29-Year-Old Ortega Trial
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 25
Paralyzed Marine Veteran Jimmy Friesenhahn Hospitalized, Delaying Testimony in 29-Year-Old Ortega Trial
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 25
Summary
Jimmy Friesenhahn has been back in the hospital for at least a week after complications from a blood clot, forcing a delay to testimony he had been expected to give at Wilmer Vladimir Ruiz Ortega’s trial next week.
An Aug. 28 surgery was followed by three weeks of inpatient rehabilitation before his condition worsened, his family said, though they still hope he can eventually testify in Bexar County court.
Friesenhahn was shot on May 4, 2025, while working security at a San Antonio bar after police say he tried to stop Ortega, 29, from entering with a gun; a neck wound left him paralyzed, unable to speak and needing full-time care.
His family says Ortega — a Honduran national charged with aggravated assault on a security officer and illegal U.S. entry — should have been turned over to ICE earlier, citing prior Texas arrests, missed court appearances and active warrants.
The case has become, for Friesenhahn’s relatives, both a push for prosecution and a reckoning with permanent injuries they say mean a lifelong fight rather than recovery.