LOS ANGELES, CA — A Florida woman accused of firing at least 20 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle at Rihanna’s Los Angeles home pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a 14-count grand jury indictment that includes one charge of attempted murder, following a judge’s ruling one day earlier that she is mentally fit to stand trial.
Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, 36, of Orlando, Florida, appeared in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom in yellow jail attire as Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yvette Verastegui unsealed the indictment. The grand jury had returned the indictment in June, but court proceedings had been delayed for months while Ortiz underwent psychiatric evaluation. Her competency ruling Tuesday cleared the way for the case to move forward. Prosecutors say Ortiz drove from Florida to Rihanna’s Beverly Crest-area property on March 8 and opened fire while the singer, her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky, their three young children, Rihanna’s mother, a nanny, and two staff members were all on the premises. No one was injured.
Ortiz said nothing during the hearing, speaking only to her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Derek Dillman, who entered the not guilty plea on her behalf. Judge Verastegui ordered Ortiz held in lieu of $2.65 million bail. Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott addressed reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing, making clear how prosecutors view the alleged attack. “This is a person who wanted to kill Rihanna,” Bott said. “Everyone else was collateral damage.” Ortiz is due back in court October 29 for a pretrial hearing. If convicted on all counts, she faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman also issued a statement, saying: “Every person deserves to feel safe in and around their home. Shooting at an occupied home is a serious, violent crime that is both reckless and dangerous. It is pure luck and not a matter of restraint that no one was killed or injured.”
According to law enforcement documents and court filings, Ortiz allegedly drove a white Tesla Model 3 to Rihanna’s property just west of Beverly Hills at approximately 1:20 p.m. on March 8 and pointed a Springfield Armory AR-15-style rifle out of the vehicle’s window. Investigators say she fired at least 20 rounds, striking an Airstream trailer parked on the property, a wooden fence, the exterior wall of a second-floor nursery, a patio, and the gate of the residence. Bullets also reached a neighboring home where two additional individuals were present at the time. Officers recovered the black rifle along with two 30-round magazines when they arrested Ortiz roughly an hour after the shooting. She was found at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, still driving the same white Tesla. Investigators also recovered a wig at the time of her arrest, which prosecutors described as a disguise. LAPD Capt. Mike Bland confirmed the weapon was an AR-15-style rifle, and court filings note that both the rifle and the magazines were legally owned by Ortiz.
Rihanna, whose legal name is Robyn Fenty, told police she and A$AP Rocky — whose legal name is Rakim Mayers — were sleeping inside the Airstream trailer when she was jolted awake. According to an LAPD follow-up report made public through a court filing, Rihanna said she “suddenly heard approximately ten loud sounds like something banging on metal.” After the sounds stopped, she opened the curtains and spotted bullet holes in the windshield directly in front of where she was standing. She then grabbed Mayers out of bed, told him they were being shot at, and pushed both of them to the ground before the couple ran into the garage of their home to secure their children and staff. Court documents show three bullet impacts were found on the windshield and side of the Airstream, though none of the rounds penetrated the vehicle. The children — identified in reports as Rza, Riot, and Rocki — were in the nursery with their nanny when shots struck the exterior wall of that room. Rihanna’s mother was also in the residence at the time.
Ortiz had no prior criminal record and has been a licensed speech-language pathologist in California since 2016. The California Attorney General’s Office moved to bar her from practicing speech-language pathology in California while the criminal case is pending, according to an LAPD document attached to that filing. Court records show she had previously been involuntarily committed and had lost custody of her then 10-year-old child, according to prior reporting. In the weeks before the March 8 shooting, Ortiz made multiple posts on what is believed to be her Facebook page referencing Rihanna and other celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Cardi B. One post from February tagged Rihanna directly and stated that Ortiz was waiting for the singer “to say something to me directly instead of sneaking around.” A December post read: “I’m already threw with Rihanna.” In another video, Ortiz said she believed Rihanna wanted to kill her. Prosecutors have not formally established a motive or identified any personal connection between Ortiz and Rihanna, and District Attorney Hochman said in March that law enforcement was continuing to gather social media evidence and review any possible links between the two.
The grand jury indictment supersedes the original criminal complaint filed against Ortiz in March, which charged her with attempted murder and more than a dozen other felony counts. Using a grand jury allowed prosecutors to bypass California’s public preliminary hearing process, where evidence would otherwise have been presented openly to determine whether the case merits a trial. The upgraded indictment also changes the earlier assault charge — originally listed as assault with a semiautomatic firearm — to the more serious charge of assault with an assault weapon. The full 14-count indictment includes one count of attempted murder targeting Rihanna, 10 counts of assault with an assault weapon, two counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling, and one count of shooting at an inhabited vehicle. Court proceedings had stalled in May when Ortiz’s public defender declared a doubt about her mental fitness. During that same May hearing, Ortiz attempted to fire her attorney. The psychiatric evaluation reports remain sealed, and no details about her mental health status were discussed publicly in Wednesday’s proceedings.
After her arrest in March, Ortiz told detectives she “wasn’t attempting murder” when she opened fire, according to the LAPD police report. Her defense attorney, Deputy Public Defender Derek Dillman, did not speak to reporters following Wednesday’s hearing, and her legal team has not publicly outlined a defense strategy beyond confirming the not guilty plea. The case now moves toward a pretrial hearing set for October 29 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Rihanna is a nine-time Grammy Award winner with 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Ortiz remains held in the Los Angeles County jail as the case heads toward trial.
