Thread: 1 immigrant, 7 DUI arrests, 13 aliases

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CASE IN POINT: DAMIAN CAMPOS
1 immigrant, 7 DUI arrests, 13 aliases
Repeat offender dodged deportation until fatal crash sent ICE into action
Barry Gutierrez © News

Enedina Martinez holds her 1-year-old daughter, Marissa, at the grave of her husband, Marcos Martinez, at a cemetery in Greeley. The family visited on what would have been his 36th birthday. Martinez was a passenger in Damian Campos' car when Campos lost control in a construction zone in Greeley. Campos, a Mexican immigrant whose legal status could not be confirmed, had a long history of DUI convictions and aliases but wasn't tagged by immigration officials for deportation until after Martinez was killed.





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By Fernando Quintero and Burt Hubbard, Rocky Mountain News
June 12, 2006
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Fernando Quintero and Burt Hubbard, Rocky Mountain News

By 2003, Damian Campos, a Mexican immigrant, had seven arrests for driving under the influence in northern Colorado and used 13 different names.

Immigration officials never tried to deport him — not until he rolled a vehicle last year, killing Marcos Martinez, one of his softball teammates. Police suspect Campos was driving drunk that day in May, too, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation and court records. A jury in Weld County deadlocked on a DUI charge but convicted Campos of vehicular homicide-reckless driving.

That offers little comfort to Enedina Martinez, of Greeley. She must raise her four children without her husband, who died at age 35.

Without Marcos, she has had to divide herself into three: mother, breadwinner, homemaker.

She works seven nights a week cleaning two restaurants in Fort Collins — including one job she took over from her husband — and tends to her children by day.

"My life has changed. I sleep very little, maybe two, three hours after I get home from work," she said, bleary-eyed from her graveyard shift. "Then I have to take care of the children, clean the house, pay bills, shop for groceries."

But for Martinez, the worst thing about her husband's death was how his friends abandoned him after Campos' Chevy Suburban flipped over. Campos and the other passengers fled the accident scene, leaving Marcos' lifeless body sticking halfway out the vehicle.

The men were teammates headed home from a softball game in Cheyenne. Police say Campos was speeding through a road work zone when his vehicle hit several construction barrels before rolling onto its top.

Witnesses said they saw four men try to pull Marcos Martinez from the car, then run away.

Campos, 38, was arrested that night hiding under a car near his home. Court records say he told police he had three beers before the crash. Officers said he smelled of alcohol.

After he was charged with vehicular homicide, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents put a hold on him for possible deportation after he serves his sentence, according to jail records.

That he did not come to immigration officials' notice earlier is not a surprise. DUI is not a felony in Colorado. It doesn't fall into the category of serious crimes that ICE uses as its criteria for deciding which foreign-born jail inmates to detain and possibly deport.

Campos also had been arrested in the past for fighting, resisting arrest, attempted escape, domestic violence and harassment. None of those caught ICE's attention, either.

Campos avoided jail with a 30-day suspended sentence for his first DUI in Morgan County in 1996. Another DUI the next year in Weld County earned him a 30-day sentence and two years probation, plus 30 days for a DUI in Garfield County.

On Oct. 14, 2000, Greeley police saw Campos speeding through downtown, barely missing three pedestrians. When they arrested him, he said his name was Manuel Hernandez-Martinez and gave a phony date of birth. Minutes later, he said his name was really Manuel Sanchez with another date of birth.

Court files later identified him as Rey David Angon Billagrana. He pleaded guilty on March 31, 2000, to DUI, but failed to show up for sentencing and an arrest warrant was issued. He also failed to appear in court in 2001 on a DUI arrest in Larimer County.

On June 7, 2003, he was arrested again for DUI in Greeley, this time as Damian Campos. His blood alcohol level was 0.192 percent, almost twice what was then the legal limit. He was sentenced to 365 days in jail for the 2000, 2001 and 2003 cases.

Then came the fatal accident that killed Marcos Martinez.

Enedina Martinez and Campos, who is her mother's godson, grew up together in a village outside Zacatecas, Mexico. She says Campos' first name is David.

"He and my husband weren't the best of friends. But the others who were riding with him the night they crashed were," said Enedina Martinez. "I can forgive David for crashing the SUV. He is an alcoholic. My husband knew that he was an alcoholic. I still can't understand why he chose to ride with him that night. What I can't forgive is that they left Marcos lying there on the street."

Martinez and her mother, Maria Sanchez, say Campos is in the U.S. illegally, though federal and state officials would not confirm that. The women believe he ran from the scene because of his illegal status and the beers he drank.

The women said they did not know whether the others in the vehicle were here legally.

Sitting in her sunny kitchen while cradling Marissa, her 1-year-old, Enedina Martinez said she misses her husband of 15 years "very much." And so do their other U.S.-born children — Alejandro, 14; Graciela, 12; and Lorena, 10.

"He was a good dad," Lorena said, anger in her voice. "I wish he was still with us."

Enedina Martinez, who, along with her husband, gained legal permanent residency five years ago, said she partly blames U.S. immigration policy for her husband's death.

"We all come to the United States to work. Unfortunately, they don't want to give us the documentation we need to work," she said. "If the government gave permission to those who are here to work, it could better weed out those who are drunk drivers and other bad people."

Sentencing for Campos was delayed at a hearing in May because of confusion over his various aliases and phony documents, including five Social Security numbers with different names and dates of birth.

Said Weld District Judge James Hartmann of Campos, who sat before him in an orange jumpsuit flanked by his attorney and an interpreter: "I don't even know if Damian Campos is his name."

Whatever his name, he will serve a 22-year sentence for Martinez's death, the judge ruled Monday.

quinterof@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5250 and hubbardb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5107

I just do not get this. How many crimes does and illegal have to comit before the are considered dangerous enough for deportation? If they are caught once they should be out of here. They are illegal anyway just being here, let alone criminal behavior over and over and over and over....

This is outrageous, plain and simple. Millions of Americans should be screaming at the top of their voices to Washington that WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!!

Unfortunately the Senate and administration has given them amnesty as they don't care about the safety and welfare of Americans. The fact that officials from Mexican consulates are able to reduce illegal alien criminal's bail or pressure this spineless and corrupt administration and their crony judges to drop charges and have them released also adds to the problem. Too many cities are sanctuary cities where illegal aliens that commit crimes can't be asked their immigration status so that gives them license to commit even more crimes which is beyond absurd. I feel this will get even worse as time progresses.