'He Was Just One of the Guys'

James Choy was shocked at the news.

Since this morning, when he heard that , Choy said he was "absolutely shocked."

Choy was on the staff of the Mt. SAC Mountaineer with 25-year-old Daniel Ortiz, who was arrested Tuesday as an accessory to .

Ortiz's sister, Chanel Ortiz, 26, has also been booked as an accessory to the crime that was discovered after Montenegro was found pushing a trash can of human remains down a residential street in Ontario.

The victim was as 63-year-old Samuel Wiggins, Jr., who lived in the 23700 block of Meadow Falls Lane in Diamond Bar.

Choy said the allegations did not fit with the Ortiz that he remembered.

"(Ortiz) is not the type of person that you would expect that would get involved in this," Choy said. "He's just like your best friend or my best friend. You could just sit there and vent your everyday stuff and he's just there and he's just one of the guys."

While Choy did not know the details of Ortiz's relationship with his mother and sister, he said that Ortiz was a man of strong political convictions who was involved in protests and organizing with social justice groups on campus.

In 2006, Choy was selected as managing editor for the fledgling Moutnaineer, which was being brought back into print after a year-long hiatus. Ortiz, Choy said, was tapped as editor-in-chief, but his tenure in the spot was short-lived.

"A lot of his views and ideas were very biased," Choy said.

After one issue, Choy said the staff was reconfigured in light of Ortiz's hardened political stances and Choy took over as editor-in-chief.

This afternoon, Choy headed back to his old newsroom where he said the Mountaineer staff was rushing to pick up the details of the story for a deadline tonight.

More in this story:

• Diamond Bar Home Suspected Scene of Trash Can Remains Murder
• Police ID Ontario Trash Can Remains as Diamond Bar Man
• Human Remains Found in Ontario May Belong to Diamond Bar Man, Police Say

Editor's Note: currently blogs for Walnut and Diamond Bar Patch on Mt. SAC athletics.