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One of home invasion suspects has history of trouble
August 26,2006
Andres R. Martinez
Monitor Staff Writer


EDINBURG — A judge ordered two teenage Mexican nationals held until a hearing to determine whether they can be tried as adults in connection with three home invasions that included a sexual assault.

"We are working with the district attorney’s office to certify them as adults," Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said. "We believe that they committed adult crimes and should face adult consequences."

The two, both of whom are illegally in the United States, were arrested Aug. 10 in connection with a 24-hour crime wave in La Joya and Palmview that included a drive-by shooting, three home invasions and the sexual assault. The suspects’ names were still not released Friday because they continue to be seen as juveniles in the courts.

But for the first time, Treviño said the two are suspected to be members of an unknown gang from southern Mexico that posed as police officers in the Upper Rio Grande Valley. The group, comprised of illegal aliens, disbanded after the two teens were arrested.

"We are trying to link them to other home invasions, but at this point we don’t have the evidence," the sheriff said.

While preparing for Friday’s hearing over the past couple weeks, two investigators assigned to the case discovered one of the teens may have lied about his age. His fingerprints match that of a 19-year-old man who has been deported three times.

Treviño appeared at the closed court session Friday to ask the judge to hold the two based on the viciousness of their alleged crimes and the second teen’s actual status as an adult.

"This kid is a real menace, a real thug," Treviño said. "He is someone we need to incapacitate now."

Juvenile Court Judge Maxine Longoria ordered the sheriff’s department to conduct a forensic dental exam to help determine the teen’s age, Treviño said.

But that test cannot give an exact age, only a range of ages, the sheriff said, so he plans to work with the Mexican consulate to certify that the teen is actually an adult.

The 19-year-old man that Treviño believes one of the suspects is has been arrested twice in Starr County and once in Alton.

He gave his real name and real birth date the first time he was deported, Treviño said. Then, in later arrests he altered his name and made himself at least two years younger.

By the time sheriff’s deputies arrested him on Aug. 10, he had used another illegal immigrant’s name and birth date, Treviño said.

Sheriff’s deputies interviewed the family of the teen whose identity was used and they admitted that their nephew had given the 19-year-old his date of birth and name to use as an alias.

No date has been yet been set for the teens’ next hearing