Thread: Suspect in fatality held again

Suspect in fatality held again Man was deported before '99 trial in traffic death; Arpaio assails system

Michael Kiefer and Michael Clancy
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 6, 2007 12:00 AM


A man deported seven years ago before he could stand trial on charges stemming from a traffic accident that killed a 16-year-old Glendale girl was arrested this week after failing to show up for a court appearance.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio called it a case of a broken criminal justice system. And a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office pointed out that the same could not happen today under a law that went into effect after the November elections. The new law denies bail to undocumented immigrants who commit serious crimes.

Manuel Sanchez, 38, was indicted on manslaughter charges in 1999 but failed to appear in court because he had been turned over to immigration officials after posting a low bond and was deported to Mexico.

He was re-arrested in November but put up $27,000 bail and was released.

When he failed to appear in court again Wednesday, a Maricopa County Superior Court commissioner issued a warrant for his arrest, and he was apprehended later that day.

A new cash bond amount of $50,000 was set, and Sanchez was still in jail Friday.

On Oct. 10, 1998, Sanchez, who authorities say was intoxicated, broadsided a car driven by April Jacobson, who had just made an illegal U-turn.

Sanchez was indicted on manslaughter charges in February 1999. According to court records, Sanchez posted $3,400 bail and was released to the custody of what was then the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which deported him.

"We do everything in our power to detain and deport violent offenders, but the law is complicated," said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the agency, now Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

April's father, Maricopa County sheriff's Sgt. Michael Jacobson, followed the case and learned that by 2001 Sanchez was back in Arizona. Jacobson alerted authorities but they could not arrest Sanchez in time.

He was rearrested Nov. 23. Jacobson said he then contacted ICE and learned that Sanchez had received a "green card" and was in the country legally.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing," Jacobson said. "I asked how it was possible that a person could be an illegal alien in 2000, deported to Mexico and then become legal by 2007 even though he is facing a Class 2 felony manslaughter charge."

Mack could not immediately verify Sanchez's immigration status but she said that if he is here legally, he cannot be deported unless he is convicted.

In reference to the $27,000 bond set when Sanchez was arrested in November, Barnett Lotstein, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, said, "His history seemed to say that he would be a flight risk," he said.

Lotstein also pointed out that if a similar situation were to occur today, Sanchez would have been held without bail.

If he is here legally now, the law does not apply to him.

Arpaio was angry that Sanchez had been allowed to elude arrest for so long. "Either Sanchez is incredibly lucky or he has learned to work the system in order to avoid prosecution," he said. "Either way, we have to repair our criminal justice system to prevent this kind of thing from happening again."

http://www.azcentral.com

How about an Action Alert to get this guy's Green Card revoked?

If we all called ICE about it, would it work?

Why would they set bail on this guy again. The Duke students had such high bail it was a hardship on their wealthy parents. 50,000 seems low for someone responsible for a death who has failed to appear several times. If he is a narco trafficer he could easily post that amount and disappeart again.

Added to Home PAge
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=N ... e&sid=1822

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing," Jacobson said. "I asked how it was possible that a person could be an illegal alien in 2000, deported to Mexico and then become legal by 2007 even though he is facing a Class 2 felony manslaughter charge."


It could be that he donated to John McCain’s campaign fund

I hope this story gets a lot of national attention. Personally, I'd like an answer to Sgt. Michael Jacobson's question:

"I asked how it was possible that a person could be an illegal alien in 2000, deported to Mexico and then become legal by 2007 even though he is facing a Class 2 felony manslaughter charge."

I hope everyone is sending this story to their elected representative in Washington. The question deserves an answer and there should be a congressional investigation into the workings of U.S. Customs and Immigration! How did the Sanches request for legal entry get approved? Somebody should pay for rubber stamping his application without a background check!

I hope this story gets a lot of national attention

Absolutely MW. This is a prime example of just how broken the system is.

Unfortunately this isn't making any national news either, but while I was searching I found this story on an unrelated guy who used the same name that if it didn't previously get posted on ALIPAC you all should find interesting.

1 immigrant, 7 DUI arrests, 13 aliases
Repeat offender dodged deportation until fatal crash sent ICE into action

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

Lee este artículo en español

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.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/c ... NT,00.html

Cheap labor for Tysons and Swift.

The open border is like a turnstyle for killers.

"April's father, Maricopa County sheriff's Sgt. Michael Jacobson, followed the case and learned that by 2001 Sanchez was back in Arizona. Jacobson alerted authorities but they could not arrest Sanchez in time."