Friday, February 23, 2007

11-YEAR OLD GIRL DRAGGED BY VAN, ALMOST DIES, LOSES ARM

A driver who dragged an 11-year-old girl nearly 500 yards after striking her with his van, leaving her severely injured, pleaded guilty to two felonies.

Mauricio Sanchez, 33, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of criminal vehicular operation resulting in great bodily harm.


State sentencing guidelines call for 18-month stayed sentences for the two counts, but Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said he will ask for a three-year prison sentence.


“We believe this man showed particular cruelty, and his attempt to flee after striking the young girl resulted in life-threatening and permanent debilitating injuries,” Backstrom said. “She was close to dying.”


Sentencing was set for March 21, 2007.


Sixth-grader Gladys Reyes was dragged Jan. 28 in West St. Paul and remains at Regions Hospital in serious condition. Her right arm was amputated because of her injuries.
Sanchez asked to be sentenced immediately because he has been distraught since the accident, said his lawyer, Patrick Cotter. Backstrom said he thinks Sanchez wanted to be sentenced immediately to protect himself from more serious charges, should Reyes’ condition worsen.
A native of El Salvador, Sanchez could face deportation proceedings after his sentence.

JORDAN PAULDER


It is hard to fathom how anyone could bury an axe in the head of an innocent nine-year-old boy, but that was the unimaginable fate of Jordin Paulder of Fulton County, Georgia, on June 5. The killer was “Honduran native” Santos Benigno Cabrera Borjas.



Three children were playing in the parking lot of the Chastain Apartments in Sandy Springs early Monday evening when a red car with a wobbly wheel drove through.Jordin Paulder, a 9-year-old boy with chubby cheeks, called out to the car’s passengers to tell them of the bad tire.Jordin didn’t mean to insult anybody, he just thought they should know, witnesses told police.But the car stopped. A man got out and slammed an ax into Jordin’s face. Emergency workers were afraid to remove the ax during the helicopter flight to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite hospital, where Jordin died. [Boy, 9, hacked to death, 6/7/06, Atlanta Journal-Constitution]When the police approached the crime scene, Cabrera Borjas fled to a nearby apartment complex. After he broke an officer’s arm by throwing a tire iron (or maybe a “rimmed tire” — accounts differ) and made threats with an iron pipe, the officer shot and killed him.Since the accused killer is dead, there will be no trial to remind the public that illegal immigration is not a victimless crime — assuming Santos Cabrera Borjas was indeed an illegal entrant, which was apparently the case. The authorities may not pursue that detail, wishing to forget the whole sordid thing.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

THE EVANS FAMILY - 4 YEAR OLD TYLER DIES

Raleigh County Child Killed In Drunk Driving Accident
Posted Thursday, August 31, 2006 ; 04:17 PMUpdated Thursday, August 31, 2006 ; 11:48 PM

A 4-year-old from Raleigh County is dead, and investigators say it's at the hands of a drunk driver.
Story by Gina Long
It happened just after 12 a.m. Thursday in Boone County.

Deputies say 22-year-old Christian Sanchez Rubio of Whitesville was driving his pickup west on Route 3 and crossed into the path of another car hitting it head-on.

The driver of the car, Terry Evans of Clear Fork was taken to a Charleston hospital, along with his 2-year-old and 4-year-old sons.

The 4-year-old, Tyler Evans, later died. Family members say Terry Evans has been release from the hospital. The 2-year-old, Micah, is recovering from surgery.

Rubio is in intensive care at the hospital.

Investigators say he will be charged with a felony count of DUI causing death after he's released.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

5 YEAR OLD DOMINIC JOSEPH MALEGUI & HIS GRANDMOTHER



The following is a speech given by Stacey Malegni at various MADD occasions and high school drug and alcohol awareness talks. Please pass this story on to as many people as you can to help raise awareness for this cause and to help keep Dominic Malegni alive in memory.

Before I introduce myself, I would like to ask you to listen closely to the following story:
Picture if you would a woman and two children driving down a very busy road of approximately three lanes on either side of a large median.

The two children, a boy and a girl are in the back seat of the car, while the woman is driving carefully, mindful of the children she so generously loves in the rear. The three have just left a toy store and have just spent the better part of the day together; laughing, joking, playing, hugging and talking. The love they share is effortless, real and true.

Do you see them? Try to imagine the deep love they share together.

The two children are now discussing, with delight, what it is that they have just recievedat the store. One child, the boy, has a paint set sitting on his lap that he has opened. His head pointing downward as he looks at it with excitement.

Meanwhile the fate that is to become them, enters the road way some ways back. The family members continue their conversation, and the woman is unsuspecting of the careless driver following from behind.

Picture the driver's long dark hair covering part of his young face, still absorbed with alcohol from the sleepless night before. He is talking to his friend beside him. His drunken eyes struggling to see the road in front as he tries to make the turn to the left.

Can you see him?

Try as he might, he cannot do it. Maintaining control of the car is not within him. The front tires are split while pieces of cement are thrown, as the car first impacts the median. He is now air born, and then sent into the side of the woman along with her precious cargo. The dark haired driver is three times over the legal limit for the consumption of alcohol. Perhaps you might wonder how he even made it into the car that day, or why his friend trusted him to do so.

As I now picture this family, as I hope you are, I am bothered with the thoughts of the car plowing into the side of these loving people.

Can you picture it? Replay the accident again in your head. Can you see it?

Can you see the blood, and broken bones of the boy, and his beautiful face left perfectly intact?

Perhaps it's a chance for someone to see his angelic face one last time before they say good bye to him.

Do you want to run to him?

He is still trapped in his car seat. The very seat that held him defenseless against this dreadful car. His spider man shoes he loved so much are still on his feet, still clutching the store bag and toys.

Do you want to take his hand and tell him how much he is probably loved, as his still, little body sits there?

Do you still want to help him?

As much as you might like to, you cannot. It is another who runs to him and puts her kind hand on his forehead. Sadly, there is nothing she can do. The stranger kneels down and cries because she has realized the boy she wanted desperately to help is gone.

Perhaps there is hope. Maybe God took the small boy, before the back of his head was laid open, with the weapon of the vehicles deadly side view mirror.

The woman in front is semi conscious. She is alive, but has serious internal injuries. The crash was so violent that her seat belt has ripped into her delicate body.

Do you see her?

She is flown by helicopter to the nearest critical care hospital. It will then take three weeks and 5 surgeries, but to no avail. Her family will soon be forced to turn off her life support. They will continue for what seems, 30 eternal minutes, watching in agony as her misery finally comes to an end.

Now, I want you to picture, the arrival of the surviving family to the hospital where they find the boy. They look down at his lifeless body, and then realize why it was, just the girl, the policeman walked to the door that day.

The boy is still lying there on the cold steel table.

Do you see him?

The white towel soaked in his blood, covering the wounds around the back of his sweet head.

The family is now crying uncontrollably for the boy they loved so dearly. There will be no more Birthdays for him, he had just turned five, and now is forever frozen in time.

Before turning away from this story, imagine that these are your family members. Perhaps it is a sister, mother or aunt. Or father, uncle or brother. Perhaps it is you with your own family.

My name is Stacey Malegni, and the story that I have just narrated could have easily have been yours or someone close to you. But, luckily for you, it was not.

This is not a fictional story, but a tragic event in my own life.

Did you think I was the girl in the car? Or, at first, the woman in the front seat?

I truly wish it had been me instead of the ones I loved. I would have gladly have been a participant in place of my mother in law in the front, or my son and daughter in the back. There is not a day that goes by that I do not picture the violence of this accident. In fact, I suppose I torture myself, playing it over and over, again and again in my mind.

I often wonder why I do this to myself. Do I think it will suddenly turn out differently? Is it because I was not there to bear witness? I must not have thought the worst could possibly happen to me, to us, and to our family. Because, no one ever does.

It is so easy, as I sit strapped in my own seat, day after day, to put myself in their position on that terrible afternoon. I ask you to do the same when you sit inside the safety of your own car.
It is easy, if you try, to see them; as they were, what became of them, and how it has affected my family's life. A husband living each painful day without his only son, a daughter playing without her brother. And I looking on, at this family, in the face of tragedy. A family that has been, and forever will be changed.

I'd like for you to know, it is for my beautiful son that I am no longer afraid of dying, as often many people are. I secretly long for that day to come in order to see his beautiful face once more. For there is not one day that goes by, that I do not fight the tears and the deafening agony of my heart, overflowing into my head.

I try extremely hard not to let it consume me, as it is a constant struggle for me to feel any happiness at all. What's worse, is that this is how I am to live the rest of my life....without him...a life without my son?

His name was Dominic Malegni. He died on a busy Atlanta road, at 2 O'clock in the afternoon on Sunday, November 7th, 2004. He was hit by a young man of just 19, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, ironically with the intentions of having a better life. He is now serving out his 20 year sentence in a federal penitentiary.

Again, before you turn away from this story, think about being an ambassador for this innocent child. Tell others of him. Take with you his story into your heart and think of others by choosing not to drink and drive. Or, by convincing someone else to do the same.

Administrators, educators and parents, empower your kids with this information. And teens, stand up to the pressures of youth with conviction.

I am putting the memory of my son, Dominic, in your hands. It is my hope, that with you, his name will continue to live on and perhaps even save a life.

18-YEAR OLD RUN OFF ROAD, RAPED, AND BEATEN

Woman says she was run off road, raped
Two arrested shortly after crime reported in Central Texas
10:02 PM CDT on Friday, June 30, 2006
Associated Press

GROESBECK, Texas – A Central Texas woman was recuperating at a Temple hospital after she reported being run off a rural road, kidnapped, and then raped and beaten by her abductors. The 18-year-old woman was in stable condition Thursday following surgery.

She walked and crawled a half-mile to find help after her abductors left her for dead along a highway early Wednesday morning, authorities said. "She spent more than two hours in hell," Limestone County Sheriff Dennis Wilson said.

Sheriff Wilson said Javier Guzman Martinez, 17, and Noel Darwin Hernandez, 22, both of Mexia, were arrested in the crime and charged Thursday with aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping.

Two men began following the woman late Tuesday night as she left Mexia, about 40 miles east of Waco, where she was visiting friends, authorities said. The attackers didn't know the woman.

The woman told investigators that she was driving at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday on a state highway toward her home in a Limestone County town when a car rammed her sport utility vehicle and forced her off the road, Sheriff Wilson said.

The woman told investigators that the men forced her into their car and then drove on rural county roads while they sexually assaulted, stabbed and beat her, Sheriff Wilson said.
The woman said the men left her in a ditch about a mile south of Coolidge, where she pretended to be dead until they left.

She found help at a nearby mobile home. Dena Lincoln said the woman, covered in blood, came to her door about 4:30 a.m. "I will never, as long as I live, get that look that was on her face out of my mind," Ms. Lincoln said. "She kept saying, 'I'm going to die. I'm going to die.' I told her, 'No, honey, you are going to be all right. We are going to get you some help.' "
The woman was flown by helicopter to a Temple hospital with numerous cuts and stab wounds, including an injury that endangered one eye, Sheriff Wilson said.

Investigators searched the area on Wednesday with the description of the attackers given by the women. Officers found Mr. Martinez at his Mexia residence. Sheriff Wilson said he confessed and told officers of Mr. Hernandez's involvement. Officials tracked him to a Waco bus station, where he was arrested Wednesday night. Sheriff Wilson said both men are apparently in the United States illegally and will be held without bail on immigration charges. Mr. Hernandez is from Honduras, and Mr. Martinez is from Mexico, the sheriff said.

ISRAEL HERNANDEZ 14 MONTHS OLD



LINCOLN CITY, Ore. – Investigators say the man who killed a toddler in 2002 remains on the loose.


On Dec. 21, 2002, authorities said 14-month-old Israel Hernandez was found dead inside a Lincoln City trailer home. Retired Lincoln City Police Officer Frank Harris said someone stomped on Israel with a boot, breaking his back and tearing open his heart.


Harris also said he believed the prosecutors botched the case, letting the suspect walk free.
“There’s really no reason for this to go on like this,” Harris said. “This should have been prosecuted years ago.”


FOX 12 has learned that in October 2005, a grand jury charged Gerardo Vera-Garcia, 31, the mother’s boyfriend, with aggravated murder and murder by abuse. FOX 12 also learned that Vera-Garcia was held in federal prison on an immigration violation shortly after Hernandez’s death. In July 2003, he was set free.


Lincoln County District Attorney, Bernice Barnett, said her office didn’t have the evidence necessary to charge Vera-Garcia until last fall. “We couldn’t tell who did it because there were multiple adults in the house,” Barnett told FOX 12. Prosecutors say the FBI is also on the case.
Gerardo Vera-Garcia may be going by the names Jaime or Hedda and could be living in Mexico. Anyone with information on Vera-Garcia is urged to contact the Lincoln City Police Department.

IRANIAN REFUGEE HAMMERS FAMILY TO DEATH

Suspect Held in Chicago Family Slayings
By MEGAN REICHGOTT
The Associated PressMonday, February 19, 2007; 7:57 PM

CHICAGO -- An Iranian immigrant accused of using a 3-pound hammer to beat his wife, sister-in-law and mother-in-law to death and then repeatedly stabbing them told police that the women had "disrespected" him, authorities said Monday.

After the attack, Daryoush Ebrahimi, 55, struck himself several times on the head with the same hammer in an apparent attempt to kill himself, said Police Cmdr. Thomas Byrne. Police also found a 12-inch knife investigators believe was used in the attacks.

"It was a very difficult scene, and that would be indicative of that type of anger," Byrne said of the two apartments where the bodies were found Saturday on the city's far North Side.
Ebrahimi told investigators after the attacks that "the women had disrespected him and told him he was not a man," Assistant State's Attorney Sanju Oommen said.

Police found cell phone video messages and a letter that Ebrahimi left at one of the apartments, Byrne said. The FBI was helping translate the messages and letter, which are in Farsi.
"Right now I wouldn't say it's a suicide note ... but it's more about, again, how he feels disrespected, and that's pretty much a (recurring) theme in the note," Byrne said.
Ebrahimi told police at the scene and hospital officials that he had killed the women, authorities said.

A phone call to the public defender's office Monday afternoon went unanswered. Ebrahimi was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Karmin Koshabeh, 44; his sister-in-law, Karolin Khooshabeh, 40; and his 60-year-old mother-in-law, Ileshvah Eyvazimooshabad. He appeared in court Monday afternoon and a judge denied a request for bail.

Koshabeh and Khooshabeh were found in an apartment in the city's West Rogers Park neighborhood, and Eyvazimooshabad was found in an apartment around the corner.
Detectives believe Ebrahimi killed his wife around 2 a.m. Saturday, then called and "lured" his sister-in-law to the same apartment around 6 a.m., Byrne said. He then went to his mother-in-law's apartment and attacked her, returning to the bodies of his wife and sister-in-law to call 911, Byrne said.

Ebrahimi also called another family member, who notified police, Byrne said.

Ebrahimi and his wife and daughter arrived in the United States on Nov. 29 from Iran and are refugees of Assyrian descent, said Cmdr. David Sobczyk.

Note: This man was not an illegal; however, Bush is letting 7,000 Iraqis come over as refugees.

DEREK WHIPPS


Officer Derek Whipps, Boise Police Department Shot and critically injured, February 28, 2004

Officer Whipps was shot three times by illegal alien Juventino Torres-Vargas during a routine traffic stop. Two of the three slugs were stopped by a replacement vest recently purchased by the department. The third bullet hit under his arm causing a collapsed lung..
Torres-Vargas had concealed a handgun between his feet and shot at Officer Whipps through the car window after handing the officer his Mexican driver’s license and registration. Torres-Vargas was in the country illegally after having been deported to Mexico in 2003 as a result of a domestic battery incident involving his girlfriend. Unbeknownst to Officer Whipps, Torres-Vargas was wanted for aggravated battery and unlawful use of a firearm in the shooting of his girlfriend four days earlier.

Torres-Vargas surrendered after a four hour standoff with police and awaits trial on both matters.

MATTHEW PAVELKA KILLED, GREGORY CAMPBELL SERIOUSLY WOUNDED

Officer Matthew Pavelka, 26, Burbank Police Department Murdered November 15, 2003
Officer Pavelka was killed and his partner, Gregory Campbell, 41, was seriously injured during a shootout with two suspects who fired nearly 30 rounds at the officers.

The Burbank Police Department had not lost an officer in the line of duty by gunfire for more than eighty-three years. On the evening of November 15 that all changed. Veteran Officer Gregory Campbell had stopped a newer Cadillac Escalade SUV, without license plates, containing two males. The area where the stop was made was well known for drug trafficking and other criminal activity, so Campbell wisely called for backup.

The first officer to respond was 26 year old Matthew Pavelka, who had been in the field as a police officer for just ten months. When Campbell and Pavelka approached the suspect vehicle and ordered the two male subjects to exit the vehicle, they both alighted firing automatic weapons. Both Campbell And Pavelka were wounded several times, but in the ensuing exchange of gun fire the officers mortally wounded one of the gunmen, 25 year old Ramon Aranda. The other suspect, later identified as 19 year old David A. Garcia escaped on foot.
Both of the wounded officers were transported to a local hospital, where Officer Pavelka died during surgery and Officer Campbell was treated and remained in critical but stable condition.
A massive, multi-agency manhunt was mounted for the fleeing suspect, David A. Garcia. In the process a number of Garcia’s family and fellow gang member’s were arrested and detained, charged with harboring and assisting a fugitive felon.


On Thanksgiving morning, November 27, based on information received, Garcia was taken into custody by the Mexican police in Tia Juana. He was turned over to the American authorities at the border, booked and charged with capital murder of a police officer, making him eligible for the death penalty. At a press conference, following Garcia’s arrest, L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley stated “when it comes to murdering one of our police officers, we don’t forgive, we don’t forget, and we don’t surrender”.


Compounding the tragic death of Officer Matthew Pavelka, is the fact that he is survived by his father, Michael Pavelka, a 29-year veteran detective of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Matthew Pavelka was remembered by more than one of his fellow officers as a charming, light-hearted 26-year-old, with a crown of spiky orange hair, who loved being a cop. There never was a question as to the career path that Matthew would follow. After high school he joined the Air Force, only because he was too young to enroll in a police academy. He served for five years as a Military Policeman, received an Associate of Arts degree in criminal justice and was intent on further pursuing his education in his chosen field.


On Friday morning, November 20, memorial services for Officer Matthew Pavelka were conducted at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. In attendance, in addition to family and friends, were several thousand peace officers from a myriad of jurisdictions. Our new Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was there attending his first memorial services for a California peace officer who had laid down his life in the line of duty. Also attending was our Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who has attended virtually all of the memorial services for our fallen heroes during his five-year tenure as Attorney General.


Officer Pavelka is survived by his father Michael and his mother Sue Pavelka.

MICHAEL DUNMAN

Police Officer Michael J. Dunman Salt Lake City Police Department Utah
End of Watch: Monday, July 17, 2000
Biographical Info
Age: 30
Tour of Duty: 5 years
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Bicycle accident
Date of Incident: Monday, July 17, 2000
Weapon Used: Automobile
Suspect Info: Charged with negligent homicide


Officer Dunman was killed after his bicycle was struck by an automobile. Officer Dunman was on bicycle patrol in downtown Salt Lake City. A car veered across three lanes of traffic, hopped a curb, and struck him from behind. He suffered severe head injuries in the accident and died shortly after being transported to a local hospital. The driver of the vehicle was arrested and charged with negligent homicide. Officer Dunman had been employed with the Salt Lake City Police Department for five years, and is survived by his wife, and three daughters, ages 5, 3, and 1.


Officer Dunman was on routine bike patrol in the downtown area when he was struck and killed instantly by an illegal alien, Cruz-Silva. The fugitive was arrested and charged, then released on bail after the Hispanic community claimed discrimination. The defendant fled to Mexico where he is believed to be hiding today.

SHAHPARA SAYEED

Friday, September 15, 2000

Housewife Burns to Death, Husband Looks On
Islam Online, Washington D.C.

Imagine burning to death. You are not alone. Your spouse is watching you, listening to your screams for help. And yet, the fire engulfs your body and slowly you lose consciousness. No one can ever wish this kind of cruelty upon another human being. But this is precisely the scenario that resulted in the gruesome death of Shahpara Sayeed, a homemaker from a suburb of Chicago. The death of Sayeed, 31, on August 26, 2000, at the hands of her husband, Muhammad Haroon, 35, has left the Muslim community in Chicago stunned.

Neighborhood windows rattled when the taxi cab exploded with Shahpara Sayeed in it, allegedly ignited by her angry husband on August 24, 2000. The 33-year-old Chicago resident was trying to escape after reportedly being doused in gasoline by her husband, Mohammed Haroon, who then reportedly threw lit matches into the car.

By the time police officer William Clancy, who was in the area when he heard the horrific explosion, reached the scene of the crime, nothing but Shahpara's burned body and the remains of the cab were left.

She had immigrated to the US only a year before. Shahpara had come on a religious visa as an Islamic scholar. She had been married two years ago to Haroon, who also goes by the name Javaid, in Karachi, Pakistan. He had been working as a cab driver in Chicago, and is reported to have entered the US illegally. Both husband and wife were related to each other before marriage. He was reported to have paid $16,000 to get Shahpara's visa.

Accounts of the incident in local newspapers say that Sayeed and Haroon were arguing shortly before he allegedly doused her with gasoline then set the cab on fire. He was also slightly burned and ran away as his wife cried out for help, trying to escape the death trap she was in.

Cabbie charged with wife's murder dies
The Chicago cabdriver charged with first-degree murder in the burning death of his wife last August has died. Mohammed Haroon, 35, died Monday at Cook County Hospital. Haroon died of AIDS, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Haroon had been in police custody since he allegedly doused his cab with flammable liquid and ignited it, killing his wife, Shahpara Sayeed, 31. Sayeed was inside the cab when it ignited. Witnesses reported that the couple argued loudly before the attack, police said.

ANTIGONE MONIQUE ALLEN & HER THREE CHILDREN

Family set on fire inside car Man douses woman, kids with gasoline.
Published Thursday, July 15, 2004

SEATTLE (AP) - Neighbors awakened by a car crash reported a terrifying scene: A man and woman staggered from the burning wreck, both in flames. Then the man started shooting at her.

"I heard a voice in a field saying, ‘Help, help, help me please,"’ said Lisa Hansen, who called 911. "It was the woman standing there with her shirt burned off screaming in pain, saying, ‘He did it! He did this on purpose! My three babies are in the car. Help me, please.’ "
Police say the fiery crash happened after a man doused his girlfriend and her three small children with gasoline inside the car and set them on fire as he drove. All five died after the crash early yesterday near Bonney Lake, a small town east of Tacoma.

Antigone Monique Allen, 18, who recently had filed an assault complaint against the 24-year-old man, survived for nearly eight hours at a Seattle hospital, sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer said. She managed to tell investigators and family what happened before she died.

Laveda Allen said her sister, known as Mona to family and friends, had gone out the previous evening with her estranged boyfriend, identified as Genaro Garcia, who was the father of her children. Garcia snorted cocaine while they were out Tuesday night, and the two began arguing, Laveda Allen said. Her sister demanded he take her home. They stopped at a gas station, and, because she had been dozing, she didn’t notice right away he had filled a container with gasoline, Laveda Allen said. They drove along back roads before Garcia pulled a gun and pointed it at Mona Allen’s head. He grabbed the container and splashed gasoline on the children, Mona and himself, Laveda Allen said. He flicked a lighter and the car erupted, left the road and flipped over.

The two adults stumbled from the wreck, and Garcia, who had two guns with him, began shooting. Neighbors said he fired four or five shots; it wasn’t clear whether any bullets hit Mona Allen. Autopsies for the all the victims were scheduled for today. The children were identified as Christine Allen-Garcia, 2½; and two boys, Kristian Allen-Garcia, 1½, and 8-month-old Adam Allen-Garcia.

Hansen, who lives nearby, said she heard the crash and drove down the road to see whether she could help. She saw the woman standing, with her shirt burned off, but Hansen could not get to her because an electrified horse fence was between them.

Laveda Allen said doctors told her that her sister had burns over 85 percent of her body. "She said she wanted to be with her babies. She wasn’t angry. She knew she was going to die, and she was willing to go, but she wanted to say bye," she said.

Troyer said Allen recently had filed an assault complaint but failed to follow through. "They were in the process of getting back together or breaking up, off and on," he said. The woman’s relatives indicated there had been "some unreported domestic violence," Troyer said.

Laveda Allen said she wasn’t upset with Garcia. "He was a good person," she said. "He was an illegal immigrant here, but he was a hard worker and tried to do what he had to do to make it. "He just went over the deep end. He probably just loved her too much. He didn’t want to see his kids being taken care of by another man." The family is planning to bury her and the three children on Saturday, which would have been Mona Allen’s 19th birthday.

LORI ANN & ADRIAN ROUNTREE



I began following this story the day after the murders because Lori Ann (the mother in this story) was formerly cleaning the home of a friend of mine's sister and she also worked at a day-care owned by one of our family members. Once the story about the possible involvement of Jose' Sosa was made public, I learned that Lori Ann had notified authorities on SEVERAL occasions about the illegals living next door but could never get I.C.E. nor the metro police to intercede. Now, thanks to the in-action by both organizations, she and her daughter, are DEAD!
Saturday, 05/13/06

Three fingerprints link suspect to stabbing deaths, detective testifies

By TRAVIS LOLLER Staff Writer
Three fingerprints link 16-year-old Jose Sosa to last month's stabbing deaths of Lori Ann and Adrian Rountree in south Nashville, police detectives testified on Friday.The mother and daughter were found dead in their Creekside Drive home on April 25. Sosa, who lived next door, was arrested Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. Police offered no motive for the killings during Friday's hearing and said there were no witnesses who had ever seen Sosa with the victims. "I kept asking if for any reason he had been inside the house, and he said, 'No,' " detective Marvin Rivera said. "He kept saying 'No.' "However, detective Wil Nesbitt testified that at least one of Sosa's fingerprints was found inside the home. Two more fingerprints, one of them bloody, were found on a back door, Nesbitt said. Lori Ann Rountree, 44, received about 37 wounds that punctured her stomach, heart, liver and major arteries. Adrian, 16, had about 46 wounds to the lungs and major arteries.Although there were signs of a struggle at the scene, police said they did not notice any wounds on Sosa on the day they found the bodies. Nesbitt also did not see any signs of a forced entry into the house, he said. Sosa was ordered to remain in juvenile detention until a June 23 hearing, when Assistant District Attorney Jeff Burks said he will ask to have Sosa tried as an adult. After Friday's hearing, Juan Sosa, the defendant's brother, raised his voice and began saying in Spanish that the police had no proof against his brother. Rivera told him to step outside the courtroom and then arrested him on a charge of disorderly conduct. Juan Sosa said in an interview on Thursday that his brother was with other people when the slaying occurred and could not have done it.

Donna & Sean Wilson

06/08/06
Add Donna and Sean Wilson of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, to the terrible list of innocent Americans killed by illegals aliens with numerous prior arrests. The Wilsons' shocking deaths from a frontal collision in a June 8 DUI accident were entirely preventable, and would never have happened if the government were doing its primary job of keeping out invaders. Just when you think the immigration bureaucracy can't get any more inept, you read something like this headline: Man not deported after 14 arrests (The Tennessean, 6/16/06).

Federal and local authorities are trying to figure out how an illegal immigrant from Mexico managed to avoid deportation despite being arrested more than a dozen times in the past five years, agency officials said Thursday.


Gustavo Reyes Garcia, 28, has accumulated dozens of criminal charges and been arrested 14 times in Nashville without being flagged by federal authorities for being in the country illegally.

On June 26, the Wilsons' daughter Heather Steffek appeared in a press conference with gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson, expressing her shock that such a dangerous serial criminal could be allowed to remain in the United States. Many Americans have been similarly appalled to learn that the government takes so little care about their loved ones' safety.
"Part of the shock of the tragedy is learning there is simply no laws in place at the local or state level to aide deportation of a serial criminal who is an illegal alien," Steffek said. "I'm asking the governor to please support legislation that would remove criminal illegal immigrants from our midst."


The accused killer had five previous DUIs, and was a tragedy waiting to happen. As various studies have shown, hispanics drive drunk at substantially higher rates than Americans.


LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a Nashville couple was killed two weeks ago in a tragic accident that many say should have been prevented.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER (voice-over): Nashville residents Donna and Sean Wilson were headed to the grocery store. They never made it. Their silver Buick was hit head on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of a sudden, I heard just real screeching, you know, tires and everything. And I heard, bam, and then another bam, and then another bam.

SYLVESTER: The driver of the other vehicle has been identified as Gustavo Garcia Rayes. Police found open cans of beer in his suburban, the tags on the vehicle expired. Rayes has a lengthy rap sheet, four DUIs, five driving on a revoked license, two counts of resisting arrest, two counts of leaving the scene of an accident, more than 14 offenses in total. Rayes should not have been driving. In fact, he should not have even been in the country. Nashville authorities say he's an illegal alien. Despite repeated run-ins with police, he was never deported. The Nashville Police Department says federal officials were notified.

DON AARON, NASHVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: In Nashville, when a person from another country, another nationality, is booked into our system, an automated process alerts federal authorities in Vermont at a federal clearinghouse. What action is taken from there, I don't know.

SYLVESTER: In a statement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged receiving four separate inquiries over a two-year period for Gustavo Rayes or Gustavo Garcia. At the time of each of these inquiries, ICE was not aware that these appeared to relate to a single individual. Nothing was done. The Center for Immigration Studies says this is not an isolated incident.

STEVE CAMAROTA, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: We have numerous cases of people committing serious crimes, not being deported, and then going on to committing additional crimes.

SYLVESTER: Federal immigration officials have placed a detainer on Rayes, a little too late for Sean and Donna Wilson.

CHARLES DERRINGTON



Drunk Driver Charged With Vehicular Homicide Of Well-Known Mandolin Maker
Posted: 8/2/2006 8:06:00 AMUpdated: 8/2/2006 6:16:51 PM

Police said the driver of a Ford Explorer, Julio Villasana, 33, was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide, drunk driving, and leaving the scene of an accident.

The wreck happened just before 9:00 Tuesday night. Police said the Villasana was driving the wrong direction when he ran into Charles Derrington riding on his motorcycle head on. Derrington was a well known mandolin maker with Gibson Musical Instuments. The wreck threw Derrington off of his motorcycle and into the median. Derrington later died at Vanderbilt. Villasana jumped out of his truck and tried to run away. Other witnesses tried to stop him, but police officers were finally able to arrest him.


Charlie left behind wife Susan and daughter Anna, a sophomore in College.

Reports showed that Villasana has been deported from the United State before, and there is no record of permission for him to be here. Tennessee representative Mike Turner said illegal immigration is a federal problem, but there are steps state lawmakers can take steps to ensure that all immigrants are properly trained when they get behind the wheel. Turner wants to resurrect 2003's "certificate for driving" program which afforded undocumented immigrants a driving certificate and some driver training. There's another place the state could intervene: the car lot.

"We don't require you to have a driver's license to buy a car here in Tennessee. I tried to do something about that a couple years ago and got defeated on it,” Turner said. The victim in the motorcycle crash was a well-known mandolin maker. In fact, it was Charles Derrington who repaired Bill Monroe's beloved mandolin back in 1985 after a vandal smashed it and another mandolin with a fireplace poker. He took both instruments in a bag to the Gibson repair shop and that's when Charles Derrington picked through some 500 fragments of wood to figure out just what piece went with which instrument.

August 2, 2006, 6:18 pm]
"Friends Remember Master Luthier"
A man who spent his life fine tuning musical instruments died Tuesday night in a head-on car crash on Briley Parkway. Charles Derrington, 51, was driving southbound when, according to officers, an SUV traveling in the wrong direction hit his motorcycle. The man who was responsible for the crash was in the country illegally. Police charged Julio Villasana with vehicular homicide. They said Villasana jumped out of his explorer, fled the scene, and was drinking and driving. They also said he was living in Louisville after being deported. Derrington, a husband and father of one, is credited for restoring Gibson's mandolin division......back to greatness. Friends and employees at Gibson’s Showcase said their boss loved life and lived it to the fullest. They said he was a one of a kind and more than just a boss. David Harvey is a master Luthier as was Derrington, his friend of more than 15 years. "He was second to none as a repairman Luthier. He will be missed in the mandolin blue grass community,” said Harvey. When it came to fixing instruments, the great Bill Monroe only trusted one man, Derrington. "When Bill Monroe's mandolin was almost destroyed he wouldn't take it to anyone else,” said Harvey. Known for his practicaljokes and sense of humor, Derrington is also known as the man who brought Gibson's mandolin division back to national prominence. "Charlie's legacy will be he brought the modern F5 mandolin back to its former glory remember him as a great father husband and great friend,” said Harvey.

MARY SADLER


After arriving at Cross Timbers Drive to follow up on a report of a man driving erratically around the Bellevue neighborhood, Metro Police found the man, Ivan Moreno — and soon after found the body of the 74-year-old woman who they now believe Moreno beat to death. Two Metro Police officers testified Tuesday before General Sessions Judge William Faimon that after they arrived at Moreno’s 233 Cross Timbers Drive home to question him about reports of erratic driving, they saw Moreno standing in the yard of his neighbor, 74-year-old Mary Sadler. According to police, Moreno had blood visible on his hands and his feet, and he began swearing at the officers. The officers’ questioning of Moreno ended with the defendant assaulting one of the officers. They immediately took Moreno, 30, into custody. At that time, police went into Sadler’s yard, where Officer William Walls said he saw Sadler lying on the floor, her head and face covered in blood. At a hearing Tuesday, Moreno, wearing headphones to receive a Spanish translation of the court proceedings, began crying during the testimony of police, as well as that of his wife. The officers said they believed Moreno was at Sadler’s home to ask the woman about money. Sadler relatives who spoke to the media following Tuesday’s hearing said Sadler was kind to Moreno and his family — including his children — and did not rule out that she would have helped him financially.Moreno’s case, which includes a charge of criminal homicide and two counts of assault, was bound over to a Davidson County grand jury Tuesday. While prosecutors presented enough evidence to advance Moreno’s case, little light was shed on what possible motive, other than robbery, Moreno might have had for committing the crimes with which he has been charged.“She was a beautiful, incredible woman,” Mike Sadler, the victim’s son, said outside the courtroom. “With all the volunteer service work she did, she would have given anybody the shirt off her back.” “It’s just one of those things you just can’t understand,” Mike Sadler continued. “It’s not a man that beats up a 74-year-old woman. He doesn’t deserve the title of being called a man.”Moreno is believed by Metro Police to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Immediately after Moreno’s arrest last week, Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas, District Attorney Torry Johnson and Sheriff Daron Hall acknowledge publicly for the first time that the three have been holding a series of meeting to address “the way criminal immigrants are processed in Nashville.”


Moreno's wife testified through a Spanish interpreter that her husband had no problems with mental illness and didn't have a drinking problem.Angeles said she left for work that morning, thinking her husband was going to take their daughter to school with pies to celebrate her birthday. The girl's age was not discussed. When Angeles returned home around 4 p.m., the door to the house was open and nobody was home. Inside she found Coca-Cola and bottles of wine, some of which had already been consumed, she said. Then police came to the door looking for her husband. Minutes later, she looked up and her husband was standing outside Sadler's garage.According to Metro Officer William Walls, Moreno began screaming at police and cursing in English before fighting with officers. He smelled of alcohol, the officer testified. Walls said he followed blood drops up the stairs in Sadler's house and spotted her through a sliding glass door lying on her back with blood around her head and a ligature around her neck. Inside the house were signs of a brutal fight with glass shattered in different rooms of the house. A drawer in a back room that appeared to be the woman's bedroom had been overturned and her wallet was on the floor, police testified. Inside Moreno's house, police found a J.C. Penney credit card in Sadler's name and a videogame player that belonged to her grandchild. An autopsy revealed that multiple traumatic injuries and strangulation caused her death. "The skull was severely caved in on the left side," Metro detective Rick Chmielewski told the court. Police believe a ceramic statue that normally sat in a garden was used to cause the severe head injuries. After hearing the evidence, Judge William Faimon bound the case over to the grand jury. Outside the courtroom, the victim's son, Mike Sadler, thanked people in the community who have given support since the death. "She was a beautiful, incredible woman," he said. •


It has taken several weeks before Don Aaron mentioned that 74 year-old Mary Sadler was also sexually assaulted by Ivan Moreno prior to him killing her. "Obviously" was his word to describe the assault. So why the three week wait? And that they found a wrinkled up check for $40 written out by Sadler to Moreno's daughter in between their driveways.


JAMES F. ROGERS, JR.

Man charged with vehicular homicide held without bond (August 28, 2006)By PETE


A Humboldt man charged with vehicular homicide in connection with a Saturday accident that killed a Jackson teenager is being held without bond following an arraignment this morning in Jackson City Court. A preliminary hearing will be held Sept. 7 for Luis Oscar Garcia, 24, who was allegedly driving under the influence and without a license in a wreck that killed 18-year-old James F. Rogers Jr. of Jackson about 2 a.m. Saturday, according to a police report. Garcia, who is from Mexico, used an interpreter at the arraignment this morning. He said he has been in the United States for three years working as a carpenter. He said he does not have a green card. No court-appointed lawyer was assigned today, although the judge said court authorities will look into Garcia's economic status. According to the police report, Garcia was speeding north on the U.S. 45 Bypass in a 1995 Chevrolet S10 pickup when he went through a red light at the Oil Well Road intersection, colliding with a 1995 Honda Civic driven by Rogers. Rogers, a 2006 graduate of North Side, was pronounced dead at the scene. According to Rogers' obituary, he was planning to attend Jackson State this fall.Graveside services for Rogers are at 3 p.m. this afternoon at Highland Memorial Gardens. Family members have asked for any memorial donations to go to the Jackson-Madison County Humane Society.

Originally published August 28, 2006Source: Jackson Sun

Humboldt man charged with vehicular homicide, DUI - August 29, 2006By PETE
A Humboldt man was ordered held without bond Monday on charges of vehicular homicide and DUI. The charges arise from the Saturday morning crash that killed 18-year-old James F. Rogers Jr. in North Jackson. Luis Oscar Garcia, a 24-year-old native of Mexico, told City Court Judge Blake Anderson through an interpreter that he had been living in the United States three years. Garcia said he did not have a green card. A request was made to the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New Orleans to see if Garcia were here under other legal means such as a work visa. As of late Monday, there was no reply. There was no plea entered during Garcia's arraignment Monday, and Anderson said the court would take the period between hearings to determine whether Garcia will need a court-appointed attorney. A preliminary hearing will be held Sept. 7. According to a police report, Garcia's 1995 Chevy S-10 pickup ran a red light while traveling north on the U.S. 45 Bypass at Oil Well Road about 2 a.m. Saturday. He slammed into the '95 Honda Civic that the 18-year-old Rogers was driving westbound on Oil Well.Police charge that Garcia had a strong odor of alcohol on his person and that his pants were soaked with a liquid that indicated the presence of alcohol. There also were two beer bottles, one partially filled, in the truck at the time of the accident, police said. In addition to the vehicular homicide and DUI charges, Garcia faces counts of driving without a license, registration or proof of insurance. When police did a check on his license plate, it did not come back under his name, the report said.

LINDA QUADE


A woman on her way to work in Johnson City was killed in a two-vehicle traffic crash that took place about 6:30 a.m. today on the Highway 107 Cutoff (Tennessee Highway 351 South) near its intersection with Sentelle Road and Lee Shelton Lane. Greene County Medical Investigator Ray Crum identified the victim as Linda M. Quade, 60, of Greystone Road. Crum said Quade, a native of Scotland, was employed in research at the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Johnson City. Quade, according to Crum, had been the driver of a Honda sedan that was involved in a collision with a pickup truck. Late this morning, the crash remained under investigation by Tennessee Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Anderson, who was being assisted by officers of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department. Emergency personnel at the scene told a Greeneville Sun photographer that the collision, which also involved a red Dodge pickup truck, took place near 1895 107 Cutoff. When a Sun photographer reached the accident scene, the Honda sedan was off the roadway in a field and the pickup truck was on its side in the roadway some distance away. The driver of the pickup, emergency personnel said, apparently had left the scene before law-enforcement officers arrived. But Medical Investigator Crum said about 10:15 a.m. that the pickup truck driver had been located by law-enforcement officers. But the pickup truck driver’s name had not been released by authorities late this morning. Also responding to the accident scene were units of the Camp Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Greene County-Greeneville Emergency Medical Services and the Greeneville Emergency & Rescue Squad.


Excepts from Donald Quade’s letter to TnRIP.org:


If you would be so kind as to take a moment to read this, it would be more than appreciated. On 14 September 2006, 6:10 A.M., a day after our 23rd wedding anniversary, an illegal alien murdered my wife. She was driving to work at The Mountain Home Veterans Administration Hospital, Johnson City, Tennessee when she was forced off the road and struck by a pickup truck owned and registered to the assailant. After the collision, the man kicked his way out of the truck’s windshield and fled into the woods. Tracking dogs found him two hours later…about the time I watched, in horror, as our local volunteer firemen, our neighbors, finally extracted my wife’s broken and lifeless body from her car. Apparently, he had been drinking already. My wife served this great country for 40 years as a soldier’s wife and federal employee. She raised two wonderful, productive, loving sons. She was an essential leader in the field of medical research for the Department of Veterans Affairs. She did the right thing every day of her life, never shirking responsibility or duty. She was killed about a year away from a retirement of her choosing (she could have retired earlier this year). She was killed as she lived - doing the right thing. She was a recent mother-in-law, in love with her new daughter and looking forward to grandchildren. She chose her friends carefully and held them for life. She was a Brooklyn girl - tough, honest, vibrant, intelligent, loving and full of humor. She loved to read, to create, to see new things ­ she loved to love us. She was the reason I drew breath every day. In my mind this man killed two people that morning, critically injured two sons, and seriously wounded many who knew her. It’s really no different than if he would have been a bomber on a subway.In my opinion, thousands are complicit in the murder; all three branches of our federal government, agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, the clerk who issued vehicle registration and tags without a license or insurance and who knows how many others that didn’t do their job. The illegal from Mexico was simply the tip of the spear.I f you want tangible, horrific evidence of our government’s inability to care for or protect its citizens, look no further than the picture of her car featured on the front pages of http://www.greenevillesun.com/ on 14 September. I can think of no better way to cut through the ideological B.S. spewing from the politicians and vested interests of all sides of the illegal issue than to look closely at this terrible scene. The direct outcome of our system’s failure sits on my nightstand. It’s a 6”X9”X5” box containing the physical remains of my Linda and all her joy, hope and promise and represents the shattered remains of the lives of the people who loved her.

ANTOINE BUMVU & 2-YEAR OLD EDDY

Sunday, 10/22/06

Midstate briefs: Man charged in fatal wreck

Metro police charged a Nashville man with two counts of vehicular homicide by intoxication Saturday morning after a fatal motor vehicle accident Friday night.Jonathan Narvaez-Pena, 22, of Bell Road was jailed in lieu of a $2 million bond for allegedly causing a collision of six vehicles that resulted in the deaths of a south Nashville father and his 2-year-old son, according to a department media release."Witnesses reported Narvaez-Pena was driving his Buick Park Avenue recklessly by speeding and running red lights as he traveled outbound on Murfreesboro Pike," authorities said. "He ran the red light at the Murfreesboro Road-Bell Road intersection and collided into the driver's side of a Ford Contour that was turning left onto Murfreesboro Road." Antoine Bumvu, 43, and his son Eddy were killed in the accident, according to police. Bumvu's wife, Josephine, 40, and his 6-month-old son, Tony, were seriously injured. Narvaez-Pena and a 2-year-old daughter, Hillary Narvaez, received noncritical injuries in the accident. Eleven people were transported to area hospitals, according to authorities.Narvaez-Pena "admitted to officers that he had consumed multiple shots of tequila prior to the collision," authorities said. Investigators listed alcohol, speed and the running of a red light as the contributing factors to the fatal crash.— AL CLEVELAND
Source: The Tennessean

LOUELLA WINTON


At Erlanger Medical Center where the family of 91-year-old Louella Winton has been keeping a constant vigil since last Tuesday. Louella Winton is the woman who was severely injured that day. A van driven by a woman with no driving experience crashed through her house and into the house next door, in Chattanooga's Cedar Hill community. Her neighbor Ruby Greene saw it all her front porch. She said she heard the van and says the woman driving never slowed down. Ruby Greene says "All of sudden she went to the far side and went right through the house."


Mrs. Winton was still in bed when her house was hit and ended up under the van outside her house. Her injuries were numerous. She suffered four badly broken ribs, a collapsed lung, head trauma and she has since suffered a stroke. Her son Dan describes his mother as a deeply religious woman and says the first thing she asked about at the hospital was whether the driver of the van was okay.


Yesterday, doctors told the family there is no hope of a recovery, and according to her wishes, she elected not to go on a ventilator. Now it's a matter of time. Dan Winton says "We have accepted the fact that this is a little too much for her to physically to overcome. So we have accepted the fact that she will soon find out. What she's had faith in, is real."


If Mrs. Winton passes away as expected, the charges against Vitalina Bautista Vargas will change dramatically. Authorities told us she'll likely be charged with criminally negligent homicide , leaving the scene of an accident, driving without a license, driving without insurance and additional INS charges.


There is one bright spot in this story as the Wintons wait for the closure of one life in their family. At this very minute they're waiting on a new one to emerge... a great grandson for Mrs. Winton... Mason Martin Mize.

Illegal Alien Charged In Traffic Death To Be DeportedFamily Of Victim Favored Allowing Her To Stay In U.S.posted August 7, 2006
An illegal alien charged with running into a house on 45th Street and causing the death of a 91-year-old woman will be deported.However, prosecutor Jay Woods said the family of the victim had wanted Vitalina Bautista Vargas to be allowed to stay in the U.S. She has a child and a husband here. "They wanted one of the conditions to be that she learn how to drive," the prosecutor said. Prosecutor Wood said federal officials insisted that she be deported. He said as a convicted felon, she will not be allowed to apply to re-enter the country for at least 10 years. Ms. Vargas entered a guilty plea in Criminal Court to vehicular homicide. She was given four years probation. Ms. Vargas was allowed to hug her husband in court, and they had a tearful farewell.

LOREN LILLY

A sheriff's deputy in Georgia was killed on his way to work this morning in a traffic crash with two suspected illegal aliens. Deputy Loren Lilly, who had been with the Cobb County Sheriff's Office for 18 years, was pronounced dead at the scene after his Honda Accord flipped several times after being struck by a Ford Taurus. "No one ever likes to roll up on an accident with anyone deceased on scene, or serious injuries," Marietta police officer Casey Camp told WXIA-TV. "Obviously, being in law enforcement, none of us wants to roll up and see one of our fellow officers or deputies on the scene as well." Witnesses say the driver and passenger in the Taurus ran from the scene. Police later arrested the two, 27-year-old Joel Perea, and 23-year-old Maurilio Herrera. Perea is charged with felony vehicular homicide, hit and run, failure to maintain a lane, and driving without a license. Herrera is charged with false report of a crime. They're being held at the Cobb County Jail, and police say federal immigration officials have placed a hold on both.


Deputy Loren Lilly, Cobb County Sheriff's Office
Comrades honor friend for life


MARIETTA - On Valentine's Day 2006, Cobb County Sheriff's Deputy Loren Lilly surprised his then-girlfriend, Jamie, with a kitchen full of red balloons. She was a longtime friend, and when they started dating just a few months earlier, he told his "honorary brother," Robert Willard she was the one. It was a softer side of the hard-nosed law enforcement officer few people saw. Lilly and Jamie married on Aug. 26, and his friends agree she was the love of his life and his "spiritual compass," who eventually led him to accept Christianity just three months before his Dec. 31 death.


Jamie, along with Lilly's family and law enforcement officers from across metro Atlanta gathered at Roswell Street Baptist Church Thursday afternoon to say goodbye to the veteran lawman.


Lilly, 41, was killed early Sunday morning at the intersection of Powder Springs Street and Baltimore Place after a car driven by Joel Camacho Perea, 27, of Marietta collided with his Honda Civic. Lilly was pronounced dead at the scene. For 17 years, the Birmingham, Ala., native served as a law enforcement officer in Cobb County and had just recently began working on a transfer from the jail to the Cobb County Fire Department, where best friend and fellow deputy Robert Willard said he "wanted to continue to make a difference." The two met at the police academy years ago, where Lilly trained after graduating from North Cobb High School in Kennesaw in 1989.


Since, Lilly grew to become a member of Willard's family, attending every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner Willard shared with his parents after the two met in the police academy.
"I never saw anyone like him," Willard said at the service Thursday. "He would show up at your doorstep and say, 'Hey, I came to help.' If you were his friend, you were his friend for life."

Although he never had children of his own, Lilly was godfather to Willard's two children.
He kept up with Willard's father, the Rev. Sanford N. Willard Sr., with regular phone calls and adopted his love for Harley Davidson motorcycles after taking Willard's for a 30-minute ride around the neighborhood. "He despised Harleys until he got on one," Willard said. "One day I tossed him the keys and told him to take mine for a spin. He came back 30 minutes later with wind in his hair, tears in his eyes and bugs in his teeth and said, 'I gotta get me one of these.'"
The same was true of dancing until Willard and Lilly's then-girlfriend, Jamie, encouraged him to try it out. After the 41-year-old finally was coaxed into putting on a pair of cowboy boots, "it was all over," Willard said. Country line dancing was a regular outing for Lilly and Jamie once he tried on the "magic" boots. He took his love for dancing to his wedding on Aug. 26, 2006, where he wed his longtime friend, Jamie, who sat in the front row at Roswell Street Baptist Church during the service. Flanked by family and dressed in a somber black-and-white pinstripe skirt and jacket, the Rev. Tom Brown, who baptized Lilly at his home just six days before his wedding, described Jamie as "Loren's spiritual compass." In photos displayed throughout the church foyer, Jamie and Lilly's love for each other and for God was evident.
There was the letter Lilly had written to God found in the Bible he had with him in his car the night he died, thanking him for forgiving his sins and for bringing him Jamie. There were honeymoon pictures on the beach, Christmas photos where Lilly and Jamie shared a laugh in matching Santa hats, pictures that displayed Lilly's deep love for children. His law enforcement badges from Cobb County, his uniform from the Emerald Society and even his collection of beer steins were on display for friends and family to see at the church. "A lot of people knew a little bit about Loren; few people knew a lot; and Jesus and Jamie were the only people who knew everything," Willard said. "He was like a diamond; every time you looked at him you saw something different about him. He was just a multi-faceted person."

As Willard, Willard's father, Brown and Dr. Ernest L. Easley, pastor of Roswell Street Baptist, shared memories of Lilly, members of the Cobb County Sheriff's Office Honor Guard stood watch over his flag-draped casket. Several times throughout the ceremony, the guards changed, but each one stood as stone-faced as the next - at least until after the ceremony.
While Jamie, Willard and Lilly's family each shed several tears throughout the two-hour funeral, the men and women in blue also sobbed. Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren presented the flag to Jamie, and spoke softly to her for several minutes. Officers from every branch of law enforcement in Cobb, along with those from Sandy Springs, Cornelia, Alpharetta, Atlanta and several college campuses, formed lines inside and outside of the church for Lilly's family to walk through as they followed his casket. The usually stone-faced deputies, patrolman, investigators and corrections officers stood with tears streaming down their faces.
They had lost a comrade, a dedicated husband and lifelong friend. As the family passed through their makeshift lines, many saluted what they called "a fallen hero."

"He became one of our family, and I thank God for that," the Rev. Sanford N. Willard Sr. said. "I'm celebrating the hardest day of my life, and I'm celebrating it because I know where he is."
Brown, who watched a movie with Lilly, his wife and Jamie the Friday before his death, spoke just before Taps played on the trumpet and Amazing Grace echoed through the sanctuary on bagpipes. "We'll miss you brother," Brown said. "We'll take care of Jamie, and we will see you again." He will be sadly missed, but never forgot.

God Bless,
Kristine

SCOTT GARNER & FAMILY


Scott Gardner of Mount Holly, N.C., was on vacation and heading to the coast with his family when his station wagon was struck by a truck driven by Ramiro Gallegos, an illegal alien charged three times previously with drunk driving. Gardner, the father of two young children, was killed. Gallegos of Mexico was charged with second-degree murder and driving while impaired. It is uncertain where Gallegos was going at the time, but it is not surprising that he was in North Carolina.

Prosecutors and law enforcement officials blame an understaffed, underfunded immigration system for failing to deport an illegal immigrant charged three times with driving while impaired -- before being charged again Saturday in the death of a Gaston County teacher.
Ramiro Gallegos, an illegal Mexican immigrant, remained in the Brunswick County jail Tuesday on charges that include second-degree murder and DWI following the crash in coastal Brunswick County.

Gallegos' truck slammed into a Subaru station wagon driven by Scott Gardner of Mount Holly.
Gardner died. His wife, Tina, remains in critical condition. Their two children suffered minor injuries. The case raises questions: why Gallegos was never deported, and why the stiffest sentence he got for DWI was 30 days in jail, after his third charge.

Lee Bollinger, an assistant district attorney in Brunswick County, said law enforcement officials rarely notify immigration officials when undocumented residents are charged. "Law enforcement officers ... will tell you it does no good to report cases to (immigration officials) because they have so few agents that nobody shows up," he said. "Common sense tells you when you look at the number of illegal immigrants here in North Carolina, it's pretty clear that we don't have the resources to keep these people out." North Carolina has about 300,000 illegal immigrants, one of the highest populations in the country, according to one recent study. North Carolina has a single deportation officer. He's among fewer than 10 people in North Carolina who work for the Department of Homeland Security's Detention and Removal Operations.

Sue Brown, a spokeswoman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said immigration authorities arrested Gallegos in 1998. But neither the reason nor the result of the arrest were available. "We have finite resources like everybody else," Brown said. "And with 100 counties in North Carolina and the DWI cases that come every week, it's kind of staggering. So we're constantly reassessing where to put our resources."

According to records, Gallegos was first charged in early 2002. But prosecutors dismissed the case when he failed to appear in court. His first DWI conviction came in 2002 in Duplin County. His sentence: probation. In April 2004, Gallegos faced a third DWI charge, in Brunswick County, when he registered a blood alcohol level of 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit. The Supply resident was found guilty of DWI Level 1, the most serious level. Records show that Judge Tom Aldridge ordered a two-year prison sentence, the maximum. But he suspended that sentence and allowed Gallegos to spend 30 days in jail, serving those days over a period of 15 weekends. He also ordered 30 months probation, $600 in fines and $740 in restitution. on Tuesday, Aldridge refused to accept blame for the lighter sentence or for not addressing the suspect's immigration status. In fact, he said he can't recall the suspect's name and doesn't like to discuss his judgments. He said in 10 years on the bench, no officer or prosecutor has ever mentioned a drunken driver's immigration status. "Nobody has ever told me that any of the Hispanic people that are through here are legal or illegal," he said. "It just has never been an issue that has been raised or addressed."

The Scott Gardner Act "The Scott Gardner Act will make it mandatory to detain and deport any illegal alien convicted of DWI. DWI’s threaten the lives of everyone on the road, and it should be a deportable offense- not just a slap on the wrist. It’s just common sense. The Scott Gardner Act will also require State and local law enforcement officers to collect immigration information during the course of their normal duties and enter this information into Federal immigration databases. This is important because if law enforcement officials had a database they checked for each DWI pullover, the man who killed Scott Gardner would have never been on the road. They would have stripped his drivers license when they saw his DWI convictions. This bill will provide state and local law enforcement with the resources they need to accomplish this goal. And if they don’t, they will lose their State Criminal Alien Assistance Program funding…a federal funding program that most states utilize. The Scott Gardner Act will also require that all DWI convictions be included in the FBI’s National Criminal Information Center database within 30 days from the time of the incident. To ensure that this information is entered into these databases, and actually used, the Scott Gardner Act will provide State and local law enforcement with the training and resources to get the job done. I’m also going to push for State and local law enforcement agencies to use The Law Enforcement Support Center, run by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It serves as a national clearinghouse of immigration status and identity information for all law enforcement officials. The Scott Gardner Act will insist Immigration and Customs market and promote the Law Enforcement Support Center to local law enforcement personnel. It will also require states to get their officers trained to deal with illegal immigrants, which will be funded by the Department of Homeland Security. This training will allow State and local law enforcement officers to put illegal aliens who are driving drunk into mandatory detention and transport the illegal aliens so they can be quickly and efficiently deported." The 10K Run for the Border Act"I’m also introducing another bill today called the 10K Run for the Border Act. You often hear people say we need to seal off the border to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into our country. I wholeheartedly agree. But we also need to attack illegal immigration from the demand side. People are coming here because they are getting jobs. Let me be frank- Hiring an illegal alien is a crime. Right now across the country many legitimate business owners are struggling to compete against businesses who cheat the system and hire illegal aliens to keep their payroll low. I was once a small business owner, so I know how hard it is to scrap by and make a living. But, I never broke the law to make a profit. The 10K Run for the Border Act will raise the penalties businesses face for knowingly hiring illegal aliens. Currently, the fine is $250 per illegal. My bill will raise the fine to $10,000. It will also give an 80% cut of the fine to the local law enforcement agency assisting in the arrest. They can use this money to increase their efforts to curb illegal immigration. These two bills are just a start of reforming our broken Immigration System. There will be more to come from myself and my colleagues in Congress."
Rep. Myrick also stressed that these bills will help provide local and state law enforcement with the funding and tools they need to carry out the duties outlined in the bill. She also pointed out that these bills have enforcement mechanisms so that if these bills become law, they will not be idle on the books, but will be enforced. In addition, Rep. Myrick also spoke about a new program that the Department of Homeland Security will be introducing that will allow businesses to check the immigration status of a potential employee by just a few clicks on the internet. The program is very simple and gives a yes or no answer to the employer. Business who are interested in this program can click here to read more.

Helen Meghan Hughes, Jennifer Elaine Carter, & Benjamin Richard Leonard

(Raleigh) News & Observer

A man charged with driving drunk and causing an accident that killed two N.C. State students and a 16-year-old near Sanford late last month is in the U.S. illegally and may be prosecuted for carrying fraudulent identification, an immigration official said.

Pastor Rios Sanchez, 55, is being held in the Lee County jail with bond set at $75,000 and a 48-hour immigration detainer after being charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter and other charges related to the Oct. 27 head-on collision, according to law enforcement.
Helen Meghan Hughes, 22, and Jennifer Elaine Carter, 18, were pronounced dead at the scene. Hughes' stepbrother, Benjamin Richard Leonard, 16, also was in the wreck and later died at the hospital, N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper K.T. Hill said last month.

Though Rios Sanchez had a residency card, investigators now believe it was a fake, said Tom O'Connell, the resident agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
O'Connell said Rios Sanchez is from the Mexican state of Guerrero, and that officials don't believe he has ever legally been in the United States.

The U.S. attorney could decide to press additional charges against Rios Sanchez for possessing counterfeit immigration papers, O'Connell said.

ICE placed an immigration detainer on Rios Sanchez so that if he does post bond, officers would have 48 hours -- excluding weekends and holidays -- to decide whether to take him into federal custody and start immigration proceedings. Before the deadly collision, Rios Sanchez had been convicted of driving without an operator's license in 2005, according to court records. He was again charged with a similar misdemeanor in March and in April. One of the charges was dismissed, but he failed to appear in Harnett County court in August, records show. However, it's unlikely that those brushes with law enforcement would have flagged him as a possible illegal immigrant, officials said. "There are hundreds and hundreds of traffic citations of people who are illegal immigrants, and as a practical matter (ICE) is not notified of each one of these," said Tom Lock, district attorney for Lee, Harnett and Johnston counties. If law enforcement organizations want to check whether someone is wanted by ICE, they can connect electronically with a Vermont-based service center that handles the queries, said Michael Gilhooly, an ICE spokesman.

PEGGY KELLER, DEAN OF LONG DISTANCE EDUCATION

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - An illegal immigrant with a history of drug arrests has been sentenced to five years and a month behind bars for the traffic death of a popular community college educator. The prison term for Marcos Ramos Medina, 35, a twice-deported Mexican national who most recently lived in Portland, Ore., was the maximum under state guidelines for vehicular homicide. His criminal record in Portland included possession of cocaine and the sale of heroin for profit, and he also had a federal firearms conviction. Medina was convicted last month of being high on methamphetamine when his car crossed the center line on U.S. Highway 95 near Satus Pass on Aug. 4, 2005, and collided nearly head-on with a 2000 Lexus driven by Peggy Keller, 53, a radiology expert and dean of distance education and technical services at Yakima Valley Community College.Defense lawyer Jeff West said the verdict would be appealed. During the trial he argued that Medina acted with recklessness or negligence, which would be treated less severely, rather than driving while impaired, which is grounds for a vehicular homicide conviction.

De'Andre Sanders didn't speak up during an emotional sentencing hearing Friday for Marcos Medina in Yakima County Superior Court.

But in the hallway he did.

After Medina received the maximum sentence allowable for vehicular homicide -- about five years -- in the death of educator Peggy Keller, Sanders spoke about how the Yakima Valley Community College dean had turned his life around. Sanders met Keller when he had worked for Shopko. He credited her with making him a better person and giving his life a purpose that led to a full-time job, a wife and family, and a home of his own. "I don't think I would have been as successful without her," the 29-year-old college computer technician said. Just two days before her death, Keller had treated Sanders and his fiancée to dinner as a way to celebrate their impending marriage. Sanders' appreciation for the impact Keller had on his life was repeated throughout the hour-long hearing as co-workers, friends and family members described the 53-year-old Keller as a kind and caring person whose death left a permanent void in their lives.

Peggy Keller leaves a husband, Gordon, a son Kyle, and her mother Ruth Cahall.

FERNANDO MALDONADO, A GANG RAPIST

LOS ANGELES, February 5, 2007 - A man who kidnapped two women during a birthday party in 1991 and was among those who gang-raped the victims during a seven- hour attack was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to 862 years in prison.
Fernando Maldonado, now 35, eluded capture for more than a decade before being captured in 2002 after crossing the border into the United States from Mexico. In sentencing him Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy-Powell said the sentence will "ensure that you will never, ever victimize other women" like he did on the night of the rapes nearly 16 years ago.

During a hearing last month, the two women urged the judge to impose the maximum punishment for Maldonado, who was one of four men who attacked them at gunpoint.
"Almost 16 years ago, I had finished celebrating my birthday with some of my closest friends, not knowing that in a few moments ... my life would be changed forever," one of the women said.

The woman, who was celebrating her 23rd birthday when she was assaulted, said she wants Maldonado to "be taken away from his security the way he took us that night, (and) placed in a controlled environment as he kept us."

The other victim said the night ended "with a never-ending nightmare -- a nightmare set in motion by Mr. Maldonado."

"We were taken against our will and were raped for several hours by Mr. Maldonado and three other men. The live, assertive and happy young women that we were during the early hours of that night vanished completely at the hands of Mr. Maldonado and his friends," she said.
Maldonado was convicted Nov. 29 of 100 counts, including forcible gang rape, forcible oral copulation, forcible sodomy and kidnapping.

Deputy District Attorney Beatriz Dieringer said she was pleased that Kennedy-Powell "imposed what she felt was the maximum sentence."

Even if Maldonado gets credit for good behavior, his sentence will still total 431 years behind bars, which means he will die in prison, Dieringer said. In addition to the prison time, Kennedy-Powell ordered him to pay up to $10,000 in restitution to the victims.
Maldonado and an accomplice kidnapped the pair at gunpoint near the Beverly Center on Feb. 8, 1991.

The women were taken to Maldonado's apartment in the 2900 block of Leeward Street in Los Angeles, where they were joined by two gang members. The four repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted the women for nearly seven hours before releasing them, according to the prosecutor.

Maldonado, who had also lived in San Francisco and Oakland, was arrested by Border Patrol agents near Amado, Ariz., on Nov. 26, 2002, after it was discovered that he had outstanding warrants for rape in Los Angeles and drug offenses in San Francisco.
He was on his way back into United States from his home country of Honduras at the time and has been jailed since. Kennedy-Powell said Maldonado had been engaged in "two-bit drug dealing." From now on, she said, "You will be with people like yourself, which is the only safe place for you."

One of the gang members, Julian Chacon, was sentenced in 1994 to 225 years in prison, and another of the rapists was killed in a drive-by shooting in late 1991, according to the District Attorney's Office. The fourth assailant remains at large.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

MARY NAGLE


NEW CITY, NY — Mary Nagle's family wept yesterday as the jury foreman pronounced Ronald Douglas Herrera Castellanos guilty of raping and murdering the New City mother inside her bedroom last April. Herrera, 30, faces a maximum term of life in prison without parole when he is sentenced May 15 by state Supreme Court Justice William Kelly. The foreman, Matthew Kerewski, declared Herrera guilty of all 15 felony charges, including seven counts of first-degree murder and single counts of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse in the sexual mutilation of the 42-year-old woman on April 29. The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about 2 1/2 hours.

"This doesn't bring my sister back," Donna McGrath said. "We're happy with the verdict and glad this part is behind us." McGrath said one of the hardest parts of the trial was listening to Herrera testify in his own defense Tuesday. Herrera, a Guatemalan native living illegally in the United States, claimed he woke up on top of Nagle but had been too intoxicated by alcohol and cocaine from the night before to remember beating, slashing, raping and choking her to death. "It was difficult to listen to him up there," McGrath said, tears rolling down her face. "He showed no type of remorse or emotion. The travesty is Dan is without a wife, and their two children are without their mother."

Herrera's lawyer, Barry F. Weiss, said Herrera would appeal the convictions. Weiss said he wasn't surprised at the verdict, though he stood behind Herrera's claim that he was too drunk to intend to kill Nagle. "From the first day I represented him, I expected this verdict," Weiss said. "We disagree with the verdict, but it was arrived at in a court of law, and it will be challenged." Herrera, who lived on Union Road in Spring Valley, worked for the contractor Color-On when he was supposed to power wash the rear deck at the 21 Tamarac Ave. home. Instead, Herrera sneaked inside the house and attacked Nagle in her bedroom, where she was preparing for a tennis game at the Nyack Field Club. Armed with a green-handled box cutter, Herrera slashed and beat Nagle almost beyond recognition as he raped her for at least 30 minutes and mutilated her with the box cutter. Part of her earlobe was cut off, and she was cut across her hands while trying to fight off her attacker. . Herrera also made lewd telephone calls from Mary Nagle's cell phone to her sisters and friends, describing how he sexually abused her.

BRIAN HOWARD JACKSON


Dallas Police Department Texas

End of Watch: Sunday, November 13, 2005
Biographical Info:
Age: 28
Tour of Duty: 5 years
Badge Number: 7980
Incident Details:
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Sunday, November 13, 2005
Weapon Used: Handgun; .357 caliber
Suspect Info: Charged with capital murder


Officer Brian Jackson was shot and killed during a foot pursuit of a suspect through a residential area on Madera Avenue. Officer Jackson responded to a domestic disturbance call on North Henderson Street at approximately 0245 hours. The suspect had threatened his ex-girlfriend and fired a handgun inside a house at the location. When Officer Jackson arrived, the male suspect fled on foot and led officers on a chase through alleys and between houses. The suspect entered a yard and hid, then opened fire on Officer Jackson as he came through the front gate, striking him in the armpit. The suspect ran out of bullets and tossed the gun to the ground, gave up, and was taken into custody. Officer Jackson was transported to Baylor Medical Center where he succumbed to the wound approximately one hour later. The suspect, who was an illegal alien, was charged with capital murder. Officer Jackson had served with the Dallas Police Department for 5 years. He is survived by his wife of two months.

RODNEY JOHNSON



Houston Police Department Texas

End of Watch: Thursday, September 21, 2006
Biographical Info:
Age: 40
Tour of Duty: 12 years
Badge Number: Not available
Incident Details:
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Thursday, September 21, 2006
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: In custody


Officer Rodney Johnson was shot and killed after taking an illegal alien into custody during a traffic stop. He had stopped a large white pickup truck occupied by a man and woman on Randolph at Braniff, just south of Hobby Airport, at about 5:30 pm. After handcuffing the male, he placed him in the backseat of the patrol car and then returned to the driver's seat. The subject in the backseat was able to move his hands to his front, retrieve a concealed handgun, and then shot Officer Johnson in the back of the head four times. Despite being fatally wounded, Officer Johnson was able to push an emergency button, alerting dispatch to the incident. When other officers arrived, the male was still handcuffed and sitting in the patrol car, and the weapon was recovered. The woman who was in the vehicle during the traffic stop had fled but was also located and taken into custody.Officer Johnson was taken to Ben Taub Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Officer Johnson was a 12-year member of the Houston Police Department and had previously served as a corrections officer with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and as a military policeman in the US Army. He is survived by his wife, also a Houston officer, and their three daughters and two sons.