http://www.mlive.com

Onetime celebrated immigrant suspected in slaying, knife attack
Thursday, October 20, 2005
By Nate Reens
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- A California lawyer said he didn't believe the orphaned boy he helped gain asylum in the United States in 2000 is capable of murder, having been beaten by relatives for much of his childhood.

Edwin Lario Munoz, 19, wanted to be an FBI agent and protect people from abuse, even testifying before members of a U.S. Senate subcommittee when he was an eighth-grader at Thornapple Kellogg Middle School.

The teen's testimony on the plight of orphaned immigrant children thrust him into a national spotlight, with a photo of Munoz appearing on the cover of Parade Magazine, inserted into newspapers across the country. Articles also appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times.

But Munoz, a Honduras native who was jailed for months upon illegally crossing the U.S. border from Mexico when he was 13, again is incarcerated, possibly for life.

Grand Rapids police say the Southeast Side man, accused of the attempted murder of Leoncio Garcia-Lopez, attacked his downstairs neighbor at 848 Baxter St. SE with a knife Friday.

Investigators also say he is suspected in the murder of Garcia-Lopez's 27-year-old pregnant wife, Sylvia Sanchez, whom he allegedly strangled inside the rental home.

Grand Rapids police detectives said they learned about his childhood in a background investigation but haven't discussed the details with him.

"He must have taken a really bad turn," said California lawyer Manuel "Manny" Sanchez, who helped Munoz gain asylum. "I saw no malice in this kid. He was affable, likable.

"But, by the time he was a teenager, he was hardened by what he'd been through, more than you or I have been in our entire lives."

In February 2002, Munoz, then 16, appeared before a congressional subcommittee holding hearings on legislation to reform the treatment of unaccompanied alien minors in federal immigration custody.

Munoz drew support from senators who heard him describe hitchhiking from Honduras, crossing the border and being caught by immigration officials. He left Central America for the U.S. seeking a better life after relatives abused him with a noose, car tools and other objects, he said.

"For six years, from when I was 7 to when I was 13, my cousin forced me to work on the streets and give him money. When I didn't earn enough money, he punished me ... leaving scars on my body, on my knees, legs and arms," Munoz testified.

He also detailed abuse and mistreatment inside a California youth home that he recalled as "the worst place I have ever been in life."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., tried to comfort Munoz, saying "your worst days are behind you." Kennedy told Munoz he hoped the country would live up to his dreams.

Sanchez, the California lawyer, hasn't stayed in touch with Munoz since they won his asylum, which put him on track for becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Munoz told police he was trying to stop Garcia-Lopez, 43, from hurting his pregnant wife. Sanchez said that picture fits the boy he remembers.

"What he lacked in height and weight, he made up in courage," the lawyer said. "I think he's capable of defending himself or someone else, but murder...., that's odd."