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Rihanna Shooting Suspect Indicted by Grand Jury, Pleads Not Guilty to Upgraded Charges

Ivanna Ortiz appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to the new indictment after she was declared mentally competent to stand trial

Rihanna Shooting Suspect Indicted by Grand Jury, Pleads Not Guilty to Upgraded Charges

Rihanna on December 01, 2025 in New York City.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

The woman accused of trying to kill Rihanna by opening fire on the singer’s gated Los Angeles property last March while the superstar singer, her partner A$AP Rocky, their three children, and her mother were home is facing upgraded charges disclosed in a new indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Ivanna Ortiz appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to all 14 counts in the new indictment, which was made public one day after she was found competent to stand trial. The indictment retains the previously filed charge of attempted murder of Rihanna and three felony counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling or camper. It also upgrades 10 previously filed assault charges, this time accusing Ortiz of using an assault weapon. She had previously been charged in those counts with assault using a semiautomatic firearm.


A witness list attached to the indictment showed that Rihanna testified before the grand jury while it was still a secret proceeding, along with her mother, Monica Patricia Fenty. Other witnesses included Tracey Renee Jacobs, a Hollywood talent agent reportedly on the property that day; a neighbor who heard the gunfire; and the neighbor’s dog walker, who allegedly saw a white vehicle fleeing the scene, court documents say. The indictment was returned on June 18, meaning it remained under wraps for more than three months, while Ortiz was undergoing her competency evaluation in mental health court.

A police report previously obtained by Rolling Stone alleged that Ortiz fired shots that pierced an exterior wall of the home’s nursery as well as the windshield of an Airstream trailer parked in the driveway. According to the report, Rihanna was inside the Airstream with A$AP Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, when she heard “approximately ten loud sounds like something banging on metal.” She opened the curtains and “observed bullet holes in the windshield directly in front of where she had been standing,” the report said.

Rihanna “grabbed Rakim out of bed, told him they were being shot at, and pushed both of them to the ground,” the report said. The couple then ran into the garage and moved quickly to secure their children and staff, police said.

Asked after the hearing whether prosecutors had considered seeking attempted murder charges involving Mayers or other family members, Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott said Ortiz had one intended target.

“This is a person who wanted to kill Rihanna, and everyone else was collateral damage,” Bott said. He added that the firearms charges were upgraded after an expert examined the weapon recovered in the case.

Ortiz, 36, is due back in court Oct. 29 for a pretrial hearing. She was sent back to jail Wednesday with her bail set at $2.65 million. If convicted as charged, she faces up to life in state prison.

Witnesses to the March 8 shooting reported seeing a white Tesla Model 3 with a paper license plate fleeing the scene. A police helicopter quickly located the vehicle, leading to Ortiz’s arrest. Investigators later found six bullet holes in the vehicle gate at Rihanna’s home and a seventh in a pedestrian gate, according to court documents obtained by Rolling Stone. Inside the property, police found three bullet holes in a wooden fence obscured by tall hedges.

Before the shooting, Ortiz posted erratically on social media, addressing and tagging Rihanna directly. “Listen, Rihanna. When you die, God is taking me to my future. You want to kill me. Shut the fuck up,” she said in a YouTube video titled “Praying Woman’s Journal, Day 39,” posted on Jan. 4, 2026.

Ortiz worked as a licensed speech pathologist in California before the alleged attack. In a filing obtained by Rolling Stone, an executive officer with the state’s Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology asked the court to bar Ortiz from practicing while the criminal case is pending, including through sentencing and any appeal. A different judge granted the request.

“Every person deserves to feel safe in and around their home,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said Wednesday. “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.”

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