'No es capaz de esto': Brother defends suspect in Marcotte's murder

PRINCETON, Mass. — The man accused in the rape and murder of a young woman who went missing while on a jog in Princeton, Massachusetts has only been living in the state for about a year, his defense attorney says.

Angelo Colon-Ortiz moved to Massachusetts from Puerto Rico in 2016 and began working as a contract delivery driver for FedEX.

Prosecutors say the husband and father’s job may be how he was familiar with the area in Princeton where Vanessa Marcotte was killed.

Colon’s-Ortiz’s family is defending him and the 31-year-old’s lawyer said he left Puerto Rico for a better life in Massachusetts.

“He was born in Puerto Rico, he's been living in Massachusetts for about a year and he was employed as you heard in the courtroom,” defense attorney Ed Ryan said.

Court paperwork says Colon-Ortiz was born in Bayamon.

During his arraignment Tuesday, prosecutors said Colon-Ortiz’s delivery work would have made him familiar with the area, though he wasn’t working at the time of the murder.

Investigators say they matched a DNA sample he gave to DNA taken from under Vanessa Marcotte’s finger nails.

Outside of court, a man who identified himself as Colon-Ortiz's brother told FOX25 in Spanish he didn’t think his brother was capable of this.

“Mi condolencias para familia...mi hermano no es capaz de esto,” he told FOX25 outside of court.

It was also a surprise to neighbors who live in the same building on Woodland Street in Worcester as Colon-Ortiz and his family.

“It's a very hard pill to swallow to know that we might have been living with someone like that in our apartment, but we'll see what the facts prove,” one neighbor told FOX25.

We reached out to FedEX for comment about Colon-Ortiz and the status of his employment.

Colon-Ortiz had a Puerto Rican driver’s license issued in 2014.

They say he has no known criminal history and is a U.S. citizen, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement was helping them investigate.

You can donate to the Vanessa Marcotte foundation here.

Cox Media Group