http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/in...&news_id=51845


Grand jury to hear Bellevue murder case
By Jared Allen, jallen@nashvillecitypaper.com
August 30, 2006

After arriving at Cross Timbers Drive to follow up on a report of a man driving erratically around the Bellevue neighborhood, Metro Police found the man, Ivan Moreno — and soon after found the body of the 74-year-old woman who they now believe Moreno beat to death.



Ivan Moreno in court Tuesday on homicide charges.
Josh Anderson/The City Paper
Two Metro Police officers testified Tuesday before General Sessions Judge William Faimon that after they arrived at Moreno’s 233 Cross Timbers Drive home to question him about reports of erratic driving, they saw Moreno standing in the yard of his neighbor, 74-year-old Mary Sadler.

According to police, Moreno had blood visible on his hands and his feet, and he began swearing at the officers.

The officers’ questioning of Moreno ended with the defendant assaulting one of the officers. They immediately took Moreno, 30, into custody.

At that time, police went into Sadler’s yard, where Officer William Walls said he saw Sadler lying on the floor, her head and face covered in blood.

At a hearing Tuesday, Moreno, wearing headphones to receive a Spanish translation of the court proceedings, began crying during the testimony of police, as well as that of his wife.

The officers said they believed Moreno was at Sadler’s home to ask the woman about money.

Sadler relatives who spoke to the media following Tuesday’s hearing said Sadler was kind to Moreno and his family — including his children — and did not rule out that she would have helped him financially.

Moreno’s case, which includes a charge of criminal homicide and two counts of assault, was bound over to a Davidson County grand jury Tuesday.

While prosecutors presented enough evidence to advance Moreno’s case, little light was shed on what possible motive, other than robbery, Moreno might have had for committing the crimes with which he has been charged.

“She was a beautiful, incredible woman,” Mike Sadler, the victim’s son, said outside the courtroom. “With all the volunteer service work she did, she would have given anybody the shirt off her back.”

“It’s just one of those things you just can’t understand,” Mike Sadler continued. “It’s not a man that beats up a 74-year-old woman. He doesn’t deserve the title of being called a man.”

Moreno is believed by Metro Police to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico.
Immediately after Moreno’s arrest last week, Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas, District Attorney Torry Johnson and Sheriff Daron Hall acknowledge publicly for the first time that the three have been holding a series of meeting to address “the way criminal immigrants are processed in Nashville.”