Thread: Homeless man charged in fire deaths was in US illegally

5 people are killed in a fire started by an illegal who was released numerous times.


Associated Press News:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A homeless man charged with setting a fire that killed five people at a vacant Los Angeles building was in the country illegally, and was arrested for drug possession days before the blaze.
Johnny Sanchez, 21, remains jailed without bail on five counts of murder. Prosecutors haven't decided whether to seek the death penalty.
They allege Sanchez set the fire Monday after having a dispute with other people squatting at a former acupuncture clinic in the Westlake area near downtown.
Three men and two women died in the fire, which collapsed the roof of the two-story building and left the bodies buried in debris.
Sanchez, a Honduran citizen, was arrested in 2012 for illegally entering California, but he was released a week later after agents determined he had no criminal history or previous immigration violations, the Los Angeles Times reported (http://lat.ms/1V525Uy ).
He was ordered to report regularly to immigration authorities, but for unknown reasons deportation proceedings never began, Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Times.
Sanchez stopped reporting in 2014, but no search was made for him, and no request was made for law enforcement agencies to hold him. Such requests generally only happen when the person has a criminal history or has repeatedly tried to enter the country illegally, Kice said.
Sanchez was arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse in January and for drug possession in May and on June 8, but he was quickly released.
County coroner's officials have identified two of the fire victims as Jerry Dean Clemons, 59, and Mary Ann Davis, 44, both of Iowa.
They were from the town of Ottumwa and arrived in Los Angeles days before the fire to join Davis' son, the Times reported, citing a relative.
Another victim was known to homeless people in the area as "Jokerface" because of his broad smile.
"Jokerface was a very good-hearted person, very outgoing and very loud," Sahara McFadden, 30, told the newspaper.
She said she sometimes took care of his pit bull, Gucci, and had used drugs with Jokerface in the building days before the fire.
Neighbors said the vacant building had become a hangout for homeless people and drug users in the past two or three months. Trespassers cut their way through a metal garage door off an alleyway.
Two or three small fires also were reported in the alleyway in recent weeks.

Three men and two women died in the fire, which collapsed the roof of the two-story building and left the bodies buried in debris.
Sanchez, a Honduran citizen, was arrested in 2012 for illegally entering California, but he was released a week later after agents determined he had no criminal history or previous immigration violations, the Los Angeles Times reported (http://lat.ms/1V525Uy ).

Isn't the whole idea of immigration law to prevent people who aren't supposed to be in our country from being in our country?

Isn't that why immigration law requires deportation so illegal aliens are removed from the country before they do further harm?

Sanchez was arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse in January and for drug possession in May and on June 8, but he was quickly released.

With one previous deportation, he should have been gone back to Honduras. Another illegal foreign national that has been allowed to stay here, in spite of the clear direction of the law, long enough to kill people......JMO

If they had deported the whole family, he probably wouldn't have come back. I've been thinking about the insanity of only deporting 1 family member instead of the whole family. This is deliberate. They're doing it this way to build the claim "tearing families apart" and creating the situation where they know the deported family member will try to sneak back in to see his family still in the United States.

They gotta go, families intact, no child left behind.

Suspect in fire that killed 5 was here illegally, fought with another transient before slayings


The scene of a vacant building where five homeless people died in a fire that authorities say was deliberately set by a man who was in the
country illegally. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

By Gale Holland and Richard Winton
June 17, 2016

A Honduran citizen charged with murdering five homeless people in an arson fire was in the United States illegally and had been arrested three times in the months before the blaze in a vacant Westlake building where transients were squatting, officials said Friday.

Johnny Josue Sanchez, 21, started the fire to avenge a beating he took in a dispute over occupying a room in the building, a law enforcement source said.

Sanchez was among a group of people arrested by border patrol agents in 2012 for illegally entering the country at the southeastern California border, officials said. He was released a week later after agents determined that he had no previous immigration violations or criminal history, officials said.

Sanchez was placed under supervision and ordered to report regularly to immigration authorities, though for “unknown reasons” deportation proceedings were never begun, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

He quit reporting to immigration officials in August 2014, Kice said, adding that the agency’s policy is “to focus on individuals who pose a public safety threat” and not search for those who fail to report unless they have a criminal background or a history of repeated illegal entry.

ICE generally does not issue requests to law enforcement to hold people like Sanchez who are in the country without legal authorization but have no criminal history, Kice said.

The Los Angeles Police Department arrested Sanchez in January on suspicion of domestic violence, and again in May and June on suspicion of drug possession -- most recently on June 8, days before Monday’s blaze. He was released the next day.

The Los Angeles Police Department stopped honoring immigration holds in 2014 unless a warrant is issued or a judge has vetted the request. Federal officials at the time warned the policy could lead to the release of dangerous criminals, but police said it would build community trust and encourage citizens to report crime.

Sanchez now faces murder and attempted murder charges, which could bring the death penalty. The fire came as city officials struggle to identify funding to house a growing homeless population, and street encampments stretching from the Tujunga Wash to San Pedro.

At several tent cities around Westlake, near MacArthur Park, homeless people said they and other friends had been holing up for months in the abandoned building, a former medical and acupuncture clinic, to sleep and use drugs. The fire was a chilling reminder of the hazards they face living in the streets, several said.

“I don’t go in abandoned buildings; I don’t trust them,” said one woman, who gave her name only as “Honey Bunny.” “But when it comes to being homeless, there’s a certain desperation. Some people make it in tents, other people have to be inside, whether it’s to hide what they’re doing or just to say they have a place to live.”

Acquaintances and law enforcement sources said Sanchez confronted a transgender squatter who entered part of the building he considered his territory. After being beaten by the squatter. Sanchez became enraged and set several fires near his room, the sources said. Sanchez’s assailant and a companion escaped through a window, but five other homeless people — three men and two women — died as fire engulfed the building, authorities said.

Jerry Dean Clemons, 59, and Mary Ann Davis, 44, were found in a back room on the building’s second floor, and died either from smoke inhalation or by being crushed when the roof collapsed, authorities said. The bodies of another man and woman were also found in the room.

A close relative said Davis and Clemons were from Ottumwa, Iowa, a town of 26,000, and had come to Los Angeles just days before the fire to join her son. The son was tentatively named as a fire victim based on his ID card, but authorities are awaiting dental records for a positive identification.

Fallen debris blocked escape for a fifth person who burned to death in a hallway, authorities said. The person remained unidentified Friday.

Homeless people in the neighborhood said they were mourning one of the arson victims, a Watts native they called “Jokerface” because of his broad smile.

“Jokerface was a very good-hearted person, very outgoing and very loud,” said Sahara McFadden, 30, who sometimes cared for his gray pit bull, Gucci.

McFadden said she had used drugs with Jokerface in the abandoned building in the days leading up to the fire.

At the site, purple bandannas were tied cowboy-style around a pole, a hand-made “RIP Jokeface” poster was decorated with grape clusters and loose grapes were scattered on the sidewalk, an apparent reference to the victim’s roots on Grape Street in Watts.

“I will remember him as laughing and joking with me, not as what happened,” Honey Bunny said. “I wouldn’t wish what he went through on anybody.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...nap-story.html

Illegal immigrant charged with murder in California fire had prior arrests, was never deported

June 18, 2016


Firefighters battling the blaze on Monday. (KCBS-TV/KCAL-TV via AP)

The suspect charged with murder in connection with a vacant building fire in Los Angeles was in the United States illegally and had a string of arrests to his name — but the feds never deported him, officials said Friday.

Johnny Sanchez, a 21-year-old citizen of Honduras, was initially arrested in 2012 for crossing the southeastern California border illegally, the Los Angeles Times reported. Authorities said they released him because he had no criminal history or previous immigration violations at the time.

He was arrested again in January on suspicion of domestic violence and twice in the ensuing months on suspicion of drug possession, officials said.

After he crossed the border, authorities reportedly placed him under supervision and ordered Sanchez to report to them regularly — but he stopped doing so in 2014, the Times adds.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement never started the process of deporting him, spokeswoman Virginia Kice said, adding that the reason why was unclear. She told the newspaper it’s ICE policy “to focus on individuals who pose a public safety threat.”

The fire on Monday killed five homeless people. Four of the badly burned bodies weren’t found until Tuesday afternoon, when search dogs located them under a heap of debris on the second floor.

Sanchez was in some kind of fight with the others and lit the fire with the intent to kill, Los Angeles Police Capt. Billy Hayes said.

The suspect was charged Wednesday with five capital murder counts and was ordered held without bail.

The charges against Sanchez, who’s also homeless, make him eligible for the death penalty if he’s convicted, if prosecutors choose to pursue it.

It took nearly 150 firefighters more than two hours to extinguish the fire in the green, two-story building that once was home to an acupuncture clinic. It is surrounded by strip malls and an apartment building in the Westlake District about a mile west of downtown LA.

The structure appeared to be singed and some of its windows were blown out. It did not appear seriously damaged from the outside, but the inside was badly burned and most of the roof was gone.

There had been complaints about the building recently, Terrazas said, and authorities had contacted the owner — who has sought a demolition permit for the building — about keeping people out.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://590kid.com/2016/06/18/illegal...er-deported-2/

DHS isn't doing their job. We know that. But they still get paid, they still get their salaries, they still get their benefits while Americans are unemployed, hungry, homeless, living paycheck to paycheck, suffering and yes dying. It's unbelievable what is going on.

Move to NEW Section for "Americans Killed by Illegals."