(Editor’s note: This story originally published at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network.)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It took nearly five years for a Boynton Beach man to go to trial in the fatal shooting of an MMA fighter. It took a jury less than three hours to find him guilty.

Jurors deliberated for about two-and-a-half hours Tuesday afternoon before finding Roberto Ortiz guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of home invasion robbery in the July 2017 death of 25-year-old Aaron Rajman.

Circuit Court Judge Howard Coates initially sentenced Ortiz to three consecutive life terms, but vacated the decision Wednesday and ordered a pre-sentence investigation. Ortiz is now scheduled to be sentenced in October.

Ortiz, now 23, was one of six people charged in Rajman’s death. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigators said Rajman was shot the night of July 3, 2017, when a fight broke out after several men entered his suburban Boca Raton home.

An indictment charging Ortiz, who was 18 at the time, and two other defendants said that swords, marijuana, narcotics, a scale and money were stolen from the residence south of Palmetto Park Road in what appeared to be a targeted home invasion.

In July 2019, Summer Church, who was 16 at the time of killing, and Jace Swinton, who was 18, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Each was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 10 years of probation.

Three other defendants — Alton Anders, 33; Austin Baker, 30; and Cameron Burgess-Clark, 28 — are each awaiting trial on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of home invasion robbery.

Baker’s trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 16, and Burgess-Clark’s trial is set to begin in October. A trial date has not been set for Anders, whose next court hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14.

During Ortiz’s trial, jurors found prosecutors proved he was armed the night Rajman killed but did not prove that he fired the weapon. Court records released when Ortiz was indicted by a grand jury did not specify who fired the fatal shot.

In closing remarks Tuesday, prosecutors Marci Rex and Emily Walters told jurors that cellphone records, video-surveillance footage and statements provided by Swinton and Church days after the fatal shooting linked Ortiz to the crime.

“Roberto Ortiz is involved,” Walters said. “He’s there. He’s in the car. He helping them. He knows about the plan. He’s got guns. They say that within 48 hours of this crime.”

Walters described Ortiz as the “ring leader” of the night’s events, telling jurors that he altered the plan.

“They knew it was a possibility that Aaron might fight back,” she said. “They were going to ensure that the he couldn’t so that they could get that loot, so that they could get that money.”

Defense attorney Ronald Andersen Hurst Jr. told jurors in closing remarks that there was reasonable doubt raised as testimony from witnesses, specifically Swinton, failed to place Ortiz inside Rajman’s home on the night of the robbery.

“He doesn’t say, ‘I saw Roberto Ortiz go into the house,’ ” Hurst said. “He didn’t say that. But what does he say? ‘I stopped and went back in the car.’ ”

According to Rajman’s Facebook page, he spent his final days training officers who work in Palm Beach County schools how to disarm assailants using krav maga, a self-defense system developed for the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli security forces.

Rajman was a 145-pound featherweight who trained at a gym in Coconut Creek. He made his MMA debut in April 2014 and had a 2-2 record as a professional.

He was born in New York and moved with his family to Florida as a preschooler. A family friend told The Palm Beach Post in 2017 that Rajman shared a home west of Boca Raton with his mother, his mother’s aunt and his younger brother.