Hispanic workers not charged but still languish in jail
Benjamin Alexander
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After another day of hard work last spring, seven Hispanic construction workers spent the evening relaxing in the run-down trailer they shared near Slidell. Some were eating fish and watching TV.

Jose Luis Martinez-Carpio, 36, was cooking and talking on the phone with his girlfriend in his homeland of El Salvador.

Suddenly, two masked gunmen burst in, demanding money. And the workers watched in horror as Martinez-Carpio was fatally shot three times by the intruders, who then shot at the witnesses and fled empty-handed.


For the six remaining migrant workers -- from El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico -- their nightmare had just begun.

Because they were illegal immigrants as well as material witnesses to the April 29 crime, the men were immediately taken into custody and have remained in jail for the past seven months: first in St. Tammany, then in federal custody, then back to the north shore. For the first six months, they didn't have an attorney.

They're stuck in a perilous limbo, in the fissure between state and federal government -- trapped between prosecutors, who need them to testify at the trial of four suspects, and immigration officials, who would deport them if they were released.

Local and national attorneys, government officials and immigration rights advocates say they have never heard of a case quite like it.

The witnesses -- Jose Roberto Romero Echegoyen, Luis Fernando Martinez Avila, Santos Medardo Valle Meza, Marco Tulla Varela Maradiaga, Juan Carlos Reyes Gonzalez and Pedro Antonio Lopez -- whose only crime is being in the country illegally, could remain in jail until the murder trial is held, even if that takes years.

"They witnessed a murder, and their testimony is necessary for the prosecution's case," said Rick Wood, the St. Tammany district attorney's spokesman. "If we release them, they will be deported."

"It is unfortunate that they must remain in jail, however, it is necessary."

All six still languish in jail, and three of the four men arrested by the St. Tammany Sheriff's Office in the murder case remain behind bars: the alleged triggerman, Glenn Carter, 17, of New Orleans; another gunman, Jace Washington, 19, of Slidell; and an alleged accomplice, Edric Cooper, 19, of Slidell.

Another alleged accomplice, Grant Gethers, 18, of New Orleans, left jail on a $100,000 bond after two months behind bars. The four suspects were arrested about a week after the slaying on Madison Street, and each faces second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder charges.

Precedents may not exist

The witnesses' plight is "unfortunate but necessary," several state and national law enforcement officials said.

Katie Schwartzmann, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who recently began looking into the matter, said she was unable to find any legal precedent.

"From a constitutional perspective this raises serious concerns," she said.

After the shooting, the Sheriff's Office informed the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the witnesses and their questionable immigration status.

"We are dictated by their rules and regulations," said Fred Oswald, chief of detectives for the Sheriff's Office.

Typically, illegal immigrants from Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador are detained for about a week before being deported home, according to Temple Black, the spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee.

But the six foreign witnesses already have spent 25 times that long in the St. Tammany jail in Covington.

Although they initially were handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a motion for arrest of the material witnesses was filed by the St. Tammany district attorney's office on May 31 and signed by state Judge William J. Burris.

Then on June 4, the St. Tammany clerk of court's office sent a letter to the detention center in Oakdale. It included a certified copy of the arrest warrant and asked that the "warden produce the enlisted persons to the St. Tammany Parish courthouse," the letter states.

On June 6, the witnesses arrived at the St. Tammany jail, where they have remained.

A unique case

Wood said that material witnesses normally are held only during the time of the trial, and even then it usually is only because they have failed to appear at previous hearings for needed court testimony.

He said the case of the current witnesses is unique because the fear is that federal officials would immediately deport the men if they were released.

Black said the state's fear is justified.

"Normally, if someone is released from jail, we will pick them up and deport them," he said. "Although generally it is because if someone is a criminal, then we are trying to deport them before they can commit a similar crime again."

Like Wood, he pointed out that because the witnesses in St. Tammany jail did not commit a crime -- other than being illegal immigrants -- their situation is atypical.

Both Wood and Black pointed fingers at one another.

Black emphasized that it sounded like "a state legal issue."

Wood said that it "is basically a federal issue," because "the very fact that they have not yet been deported means that the federal authorities must have sanctioned them being in our jail."

"We can't supersede federal law," Wood said.

Finally given a lawyer

The six witnesses were not assigned an attorney until a few weeks ago, a few days after a reporter began asking questions about the situation.

Attempting to explain why his clients did not have representation for about six months, Warren Montgomery said that oversights can happen.

"People can get lost in the system," he said. "It's taken much longer than necessary for all this to come to light but I think everyone was acting in good faith."

Before the men were provided a defense attorney, both the district attorney's Office and the Sheriff's Office refused to publicly release the witnesses' names.

"I am not going to release their names because they aren't being held in any criminal wrongdoing," Capt. George Bonnett, the sheriff's spokesman, had said in response to a reporter's inquiries.

After Montgomery was assigned to their case, the witnesses' names were added into the St. Tammany clerk of court's criminal database. Their names now are public, but no charges are listed in their files. Federal officials confirmed that the men were in the country illegally, but it is unclear if any federal charges have been filed against them.

There are only names and birthdays: Reyes Gonzalez, 23; Martinez Avila, 24; Lopez, 32; Valle Meza, 37; Varela Maradiaga, 38; and Romero Echegoyen, 38.

Cut out with scissors

Along with their mug shots, all other information was cut from the paper record at the jail -- literally cut with scissors, resulting in odd-shaped pieces of paper resembling a sixth-grade art project. Officials said the information was not public record.

The sheriff and the district attorney's office did say some of the witnesses are from El Salvador and Honduras. ICE officials have stated that a few of them are from Mexico.

None of the departments would identify the specific nationalities of each individual.

State Judge William J. Burris , who signed their arrest warrants, said that he was unaware the witnesses were being held in the jail until a reporter asked him about the matter. He said that he signs so many warrants that it can be hard to keep track.

Now aware of the situation, he said he would look into the legal issues involved.

Montgomery declined to comment on most details within the case because he said he was worried about creating bad faith with law enforcement officials and thereby hurting his clients' chance at freedom.

He said the witnesses declined to be interviewed by a reporter.

"They would prefer to just cooperate, give their testimony and go home," he said. "They don't want to say anything that would in any way further delay their return to their homeland."

Paromita Shah, the associate director of the National Immigration Project, suggested that perhaps a type of probation could be arranged wherein the immigrants could be released from jail contingent on their checking in with ICE every week to prove they still are in the immediate area.

The National Immigration Project is a legal advocacy organization based in Boston that provides legal support on immigrant rights issues.

Malvern Burnett, a private immigration lawyer in New Orleans, added that occasionally in cases where illegal immigrants are encouraged to testify they are given temporary visas.

"You can't have them in this quasi state forever," he said. "Illegal aliens have rights as well, meaning they can't just be detained indefinitely without a hearing."

Both Shah and Burnett, who has practiced immigration law in New Orleans for more than 20 years, said they had never heard of any situation like this one.

Montgomery is planning to push for resolution during the next scheduled trial date, Dec. 21 in Burris' courtroom.

Taped testimony?

He said he hopes the witnesses can give their testimony on the record this month "so that they can get home for Christmas."

The thought would be that the witnesses could be questioned by the prosecution and defense on the record -- either recorded on tape or video -- and then that testimony could be replayed for the jury whenever the trial takes place.

"But I understand that the judge is involved in a very delicate balancing process here between the state's interests to pursue and convict violent deadly criminals, the defense attorneys' interests in protecting their clients' rights and the interests of these six poor working men who are illegal in the country but who have not committed a violation of law that would mandate them to be in prison for this length of time," Montgomery said.

Shah said that while anything to get the witnesses back home would be warranted, pre-recording testimony is generally not the best solution because it curtails attorneys from fluidly responding to a jury trial's occasional surprises. For example, it prevents attorneys from changing their questions to the witnesses in response to sudden curve balls introduced during the trial itself.

Montgomery agreed that there is no simple solution.

"Frankly, what the legal parameters are for material witnesses under these circumstances is not completely clear," he said. "I think it's fair to say that due process under the law requires that they not be held indefinitely, but what exact time period is justified is not a black-and-white question."

According to Patricia Ducre, a former neighbor of the migrant workers on Madison Street near Slidell, the men had been living in the trailer for about eight months. The yard surrounding them was littered with broken bicycles, car tires, busted furniture and an overturned washer and dryer.

"They worked hard all day and would come home at night and sit around outside, eating chips and drinking Cokes," she said.

And she said sometimes the men would meander across the street, sit on her porch swing and talk about going home again.