posted by: Jeffrey Wolf written by: Sara Gandy updated by: Thanh Truong and Chris Vanderveen 21 hrs ago Toolbox: Read Comments (726)Recommend (9)Print Article Email Article Smaller Larger

DENVER - Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) and local police said Tuesday that the systems that should have kept the suspect in a deadly hit-and-run off the streets are broken.


Just last week two women and a young boy were killed at an Aurora ice cream shop in a chain-reaction crash. The driver facing charges in the case is an apparent illegal immigrant, according to federal authorities, who had previously been arrested dozens of times.

Francis Hernandez, 23, is expected to be formally charged with three counts of vehicular homicide Thursday.

This case has left many asking why he was still on the streets and what our politicians plan to do to prevent this from happening in the future.

Ritter spoke on radio station KOA Tuesday morning, saying the system that deals with illegal immigrants needs to be fixed.

Hernandez had been in court close to a dozen times before this accident but until this week, his legal status in this country did not come to light.

On KOA's Mike Rosen Show, Ritter said the problem is that the federal agency Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) often does not have enough staffing to act on cases assigned to them by local police.

"You know, you have this many arrests and not (to do) first of all an investigation into his status here is, I think, a difficult question to answer and ... it's something we clearly have to fix," said Ritter on KOA.

Ritter also said there are problems with local jurisdictions accessing arresting information from other jurisdictions. Ritter is not sure why the problem exists, but says he plans to look into it.

Records with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation show Hernandez was arrested multiple times by eight different agencies dating back to 2003.

ICE says they believe Hernandez came into the U.S. illegally from 1991 and he was born in Guatemala.

Hernandez is accused of running a red light in his SUV and hitting a pickup, which was sent hurtling into an Aurora ice cream store. Two women in the pickup, Patricia Guntharp and Debra Serecky, were killed instantly and a boy in the store, Marten Kudlis, died later of his injuries.

Local police say they share the governor's frustration. Det. Bob Friel of the Aurora Police Department says the partnership local police have with ICE is less than ideal. Friel says last year, the department sent 2,500 referrals to ICE.

"We're fairly comfortable with saying that a small fraction of those calls were returned by ICE and that there was actually something done in the form of say sending an agent out to the jail to talk with the person arrested," said Friel.

According to its annual report, ICE deported 276,912 illegal immigrants in 2007. With a staff of roughly 16,500, ICE is tasked with cracking down on an illegal population estimated to be 12 million. Friel says if ICE more effectively responded to referrals from local law enforcers, the relationship between ICE and Aurora Police could be more effective in handling illegal immigrants.

"Quite frankly, the partnership is not working right now. Something needs to be done," said Friel.

"Local law enforcement doesn't have the authority to hold anyone for being an illegal immigrant," said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.

Robinson says he believe his staff did try to alert federal authorities about Hernandez's status in April, but no one ever came to pick him up.

It's an all too common story that many in the know say happens for those not suspected of felonies.

"I think ICE wants to cooperate, I just think they lack the resources and that comes with our policy makers and that comes from leaders in Washington saying this is enough," said Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey.

(Copyright KUSA*TV. All rights reserved.)



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