A Reston man will go to trial next month for allegedly killing his roommate less than 24 hours after being released from the custody of the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.
Marvin Fernando Morales Ortez, 24, is charged with second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony for the December 2025 shooting of 40-year-old Marvin Ernesto Morales. He has been scheduled for a four-day jury trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court on Dec. 7 before Judge Michael Devine.
The saga began on Sept. 14, 2025, when Ortez was arrested on charges of malicious wounding and brandishing for an incident that occurred two days earlier at his apartment in the 12000 block of Fan Shell Court in Reston.
Those charges were dropped on Dec. 15 after the victim moved out of the country and said they would not be cooperating with court proceedings, according to the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it had sought to detain Ortez, claiming that he’s a native of El Salvador illegally residing in the United States.
However, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office’s policy is to not cooperate with immigration officials unless required by law or court order, and ICE didn’t obtain a judicial warrant in this case that would’ve allowed the jail to keep Ortez in custody beyond his scheduled Dec. 17 release date.
The next day, Dec. 18, a magistrate issued an emergency custody order for Ortez, but the Fairfax County Police Department couldn’t find him before it legally expired within eight hours. Court documents do not indicate if the order was issued on behalf of the victim or was unrelated to the case.
That same day, police responded to the apartment where Ortez lived on Fan Shell Court at around 11:40 a.m. after a resident of the apartment reported gunshots.
According to the criminal complaint, the resident said they were inside the apartment when they heard gunshots, then the sound of someone picking up shell casings followed by more gunshots and someone picking up more shell casings. They looked outside and saw someone they identified only as “Marvin” leaving the scene.
Police later found Ortez in a wooded area less than two miles away from the crime scene.
Court documents do not indicate what led to the shooting or any relation between Ortez and Morales beyond them being roommates.
Ortez was indicted by a grand jury on the murder and firearm charges on Sept. 21.
