Thread: 3 more arrested in investigation into valet hit-run death

By Tom McGhee
The Denver Post

Posted: 01/27/2011 10:23:40 AM MSTUpdated: 01/27/2011 04:54:25 PM MST
U.S. Immigration officials have put holds on all four people arrested in connection with the hit-and-run that killed a parking valet, all of whom are believed to be in the country illegally.

Denver police announced Thursday that they had arrested three more people suspected of involvement in the case, including a woman that Phoenix police pulled from a flight leaving that city for Mexico.

Those arrests followed the arrest of Eliu Montes-Garcia, 28, on Tuesday. Montes-Garcia apparently returned to the United States after being deported twice.

Jose Medina, 21, died after he was struck by a pickup truck last Saturday night as he held a car door open for a patron outside the Rockstar Lounge on Lincoln Street in Downtown

Norma Vera-Nolasko (Maricopa Co. (Ariz.) Sheriff's Office)Denver.

Norma Paola Vera-Nolasco, , 32, was taken into custody in Phoenix around 9 p.m. last night. Police arrested her moments before the US Airways plane she was aboard was to take off. Police did not clarify her role in Medina's death.

Two others were arrested on Wednesday in the Denver metro area — Yolanda Bastida-Nolasco, 43, and Guadalupe Bastida , 47. Police have accused both of them of being accessories after the fact.

"We are looking into the involvement of all the individuals we have in custody," said Denver Lt. Robert Rock.

Police have not yet said who they believe was driving the truck that hit Medina. Nor would they say whether they believe all who were arrested were in the truck. "We are open to the idea that there may have been others involved," Rock said.

Police have also not explained what role they think Montes-Garcia played.

ICE placed a hold on Montes-Garcia so that he would be delivered to that agency rather than released if he is granted bail during a court hearing this morning.

U.S. Immigration and Customs spokesman Carl Rusnok said that "Vera-Nolasco is an illegal alien from Mexico. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on

Guadalupe Bastida (Denver Police Department)her with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona to ensure that if she's released from local custody for any reason, she will be released to ICE. ICE also placed detainers on Yolanda Bastida-Nolasco and Guadelupe Bastida-Nolasco. We believe them all to be deportable."

Police have so far not said if, or how, the three latest people arrested are related.

An investigator from the Denver PD is now in Phoenix to question Vera-Nolasco.

Aurora police arrested Vera-Nolasco on July 4, 2008 for driving without a license or insurance and notified ICE that they had a Mexican national in custody, said Aurora PD spokeswoman Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.

ICE didn't put a hold on her and she was released after paying $200

Yolanda Bastida-Nolasco (Denver Police Department)bond. "If they are born anywhere outside the U.S. that is when we notify ICE. We can't hold them forever," Carlson said.

Sgt. Tommy Thompson of the Phoenix Police Department, said officers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport got a call from Denver police shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday. They said Vera-Nolasko "had a felony warrant issued for her arrest and it was believed she was flying under an alias to Mexico through Phoenix," he said in an email.

The woman was on a U.S. Airways flight that was pulling away from the gate. The plane returned to the gate and she was arrested and booked into the Maricopa County Jail.

"That is how close we were" to losing Vera-Nolasco, Rock said. "The plane was sitting on the tarmac waiting to take off."

In a statement released Wednesday evening, ICE officials said they had twice tried to deport Montes-

Garcia, who has a history of traffic and drug offenses in Colorado.

"Eli Montes-Garcia, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, received final deportation orders from a federal immigration judge, and was deported by Mu.As. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Jan. 18, 2008," ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said in an e-mail Wednesday. "He was subsequently deported again on March 27, 2008 after he tried to illegally re-enter the United States."

Montes-Garcia could face federal felony charges of illegally entering the U.S. in violation of a deportation order.

In 2007, he was arrested in Alamosa County for driving without a license, unlawful display of license plates and drug possession. He received a two- year sentence and was turned over to the Department of Corrections in October 2007, said DOC spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti.

He was transferred to federal immigration authorities on Jan. 2, 2008, she said.

Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671

or tmcghee@denverpost.com


http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_17217089

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