Thread: ICE agent shot in Texas (updated)

Posted: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 10:31 pm

Ildefonso Ortiz
The Monitor


Marquez Alvarado, 17, is escorted in the 449th state District Court in Edinburg on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013, after being certified to stand trial as an adult by juvenile Judge Jesse Contreras at the Mario E. Ramirez Jr. Juvenile Justice Center in Edinburg. photo by Joel Martinez



EDINBURG — Marquez Alvarado leaned his head into his mother Ernestina’s shoulder as the two shared a moment before he was escorted by detention officers not to a juvenile cell but to the Hidalgo County Jail.

On Tuesday afternoon, 449th state District Judge Jesse Contreras ruled that the 17-year-old Alvarado, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, was to be tried as an adult.

Alvarado, his older brother Arnoldo and their father Pedro are all accused of taking part in the shooting of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Kelton Harrison.

On July 3, 2012, Pedro Alvarado woke up his sons because of suspicious vehicles near their Hargill home. The vehicles belonged to ICE agents who were conducting surveillance on a property near Farm-to-Market Road 493 and Cemetery Road. Harrison was shot after a vehicle pulled up behind him as he was performing surveillance from inside his parked vehicle, court records show. Arriving behind Harrison just before the shots were Pedro Alvarado and his sons, who were 16 and 18 at the time.

Authorities say they opened fire on the agent and, when he tried to flee, chased him and kept shooting. Harrison was shot once in the back and has since recovered, however according to witness testimony he has a bullet lodged in his body. The agent was transferred out of the area.

Contreras said his ruling was difficult because the 17-year-old is a good student who is known for being respectful.

“This young man has great potential,” Contreras said. “On the other hand I have to consider the seriousness of the offense and the fact that a federal agent could have died. Now he will live the rest of his life with a bullet inside his body.”

At the end of the hearing, Contreras set bond for Alvarado at $50,000.

Defense attorney Ricardo Flores wouldn’t discuss details of the case because of the pending litigation, but said the family was trying to gather the money needed to bail Alvarado out.

The certification hearing proved a challenge, Flores said, because he was not able to bring the young man’s father or older brother to testify.

“If I could have had the father here to say, ‘Yes, I told my son to do it,’ I think that the outcome would have been different,” Flores said.

The elder brother and the father remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending trial.

Though the Alvarados have not been charged with any drug charges, in the related investigation, agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division have indicted and arrested five others who are facing drug conspiracy charges. One of the individuals charged in that conspiracy is Julio Armando Davila, who is identified as a government informant who was stealing drug loads on the side. Also indicted was Davila’s girlfriend, Aida Palacios, who was employed until August 2012 as an investigator with the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office.

ICE agent's alleged shooter to be tried as adult - The Monitor: Local News

Originally Posted by Jean

One of the individuals charged in that conspiracy is Julio Armando Davila, who is identified as a government informant who was stealing drug loads on the side. Also indicted was Davila’s girlfriend, Aida Palacios, who was employed until August 2012 as an investigator with the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office.

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Absolutely incredible. And this is going on all across the country, not just in the border states ..

Posted: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 8:21 pm

Ildefonso Ortiz
The Monitor



EDINBURG — The attorney defending the 17-year-old accused of shooting an ICE agent last summer in rural Hargill said Wednesday that he would request the case be moved to state District Court in the hope that his client’s bond might be lowered to an amount the family could afford.

The attorney made his intention known after Marquez Alvarado was arraigned on one count of attempted capital murder Wednesday morning by Hidalgo County Justice of the Peace Homer Jasso, who set the teen’s bond at $400,000.

“My client’s family will not be able to bond him out at this time,” defense attorney Ricardo Flores said.

A bond of $50,000 was recommended Tuesday by 449th state District Court Judge Jesse Contreras, who specializes in juvenile cases and noted that Alvarado was regarded as a good student and respectful person.

Alvarado’s family mistakenly thought that the bond was set, Flores said.

“There was some confusion about that,” he said.

At a Tuesday hearing, Contreras certified Alvarado, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, to stand trial as an adult.

“When my client was certified as an adult, Contreras lost jurisdiction over the case,” Flores said. “While his recommendation was fair, the actual bond was up to Judge Jasso — which he set at an amount that we believe was too high.”



THE SHOOTING

Before dawn July 3, Kelton Harrison, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, was conducting surveillance in Hargill targeting a large drug operation. After another vehicle pulled up behind him, Harrison was fired upon by Alvarado and his older brother Arnoldo, while their father Pedro drove the vehicle, court records show. As Harrison tried to flee from the shots, the family chased the agent for about three miles until he lost control of the vehicle and crashed.

Pedro and Arnoldo Alvarado — who were 41 and 18, respectively, at the time of their arrest in July — were charged by U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby with assault of a federal officer and knowingly carrying and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. They remain in federal custody pending trial.

If Marquez Alvarado is convicted of attempted capital murder, a second-degree felony, he could face two to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.

Alleged ICE agent shooter