He is best known for his invention of the Ochoaplane, the electric brake, an adjustable wrench, a pen and pencil clip and a windmill.
His grandfather was Benjamin Leaton who was a captain in the Federal army and settled in the family property of the Ochoas.
For his illegal actions, a federal warrant was issued for his arrest and was sought by the U.S. Marshall Service.
In 1894 Ochoa was arrested for his revolutionary activities where he was supplying and hiring Mexican dissidents in El Paso, Texas, which violated the United States neutrality laws.
In the fall of 1894, Pecos County Sheriff A. J. Royal and Texas Ranger James W. Fulgham had arrested Victor Ochoa as they were rounding up suspected horse thieves.
He was sentenced to two years in federal prison at Kings County Penitentiary in Brooklyn and having his U.S. citizenship stripped, but had it restored by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.
[2] In 1907, Ochoa was granted a U.S. patent for an electric brake intended to stop railway cars or trains using magnetic attraction.