Thread: Illegal immigrant's plea offer for killing officer rejected

Illegal immigrant's plea offer for killing officer rejected

HOUSTON — An illegal immigrant accused of killing a Houston police officer may still face the death penalty after prosecutors rejected his offer to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence without parole.

Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez, 34, is set to begin his capital murder trial Monday in the death of Officer Rodney Johnson during a traffic stop in 2006. He is accused of shooting Johnson four times in the head after being arrested for driving without a license.

Danalynn Recer, an attorney for Quintero-Perez, told the Houston Chronicle that the Mexican citizen confessed to the killing and accepts responsibility for his actions. She said he would agree to all the evidence against him if offered life without parole.

But Harris County prosecutors said Saturday they will proceed with the trial.

"We trust the judgment of 12 citizens to determine the appropriate punishment for the man who executed Officer Johnson," assistant district attorney Denise Bradley said.

Bradley said Quintero-Perez is expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity when formally arraigned Monday.

Recer, who is also founder an executive director of the anti-death penalty Gulf Region Advocacy Center, said Quintero-Perez does not understand what came over him in September 2006, when authorities say he shot Johnson as the officer sat in his patrol car's front seat.

Police said Johnson, 40, was shot after Quintero-Perez pulled a gun from his waistband as he sat handcuffed in the back of the patrol car. Johnson apparently missed the gun when he patted down Quintero-Perez, authorities said.

Johnson's shooting renewed criticism of the Houston Police Department's policy that only allows officers to ask about immigration status after arresting a suspect.

Critics of the policy say it encourages illegal immigration by creating so-called "sanctuary cities" and it ties officers' hands in enforcing the law.

Quintero-Perez was deported in 1999 after being convicted a year earlier of indecency with a child.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5733856.html

Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez, 34, is set to begin his capital murder trial Monday in the death of Officer Rodney Johnson during a traffic stop in 2006. He is accused of shooting Johnson four times in the head after being arrested for driving without a license.

And still we have politicians that defend and demand these people be given special considerations, all while refusing to secure our borders, enabling these animalistic acts to continue. Pure insanity! Notice how this guy had already been deported once after being convicted a year earlier of indecency with a child. This police officer should have never had to come into contact with so called person.

Atleast prosecutors rejected the plea deal. If anyone deserves the death penality, it would be someone who was found guilty of murdering a police officer simply because he did not have a drivers license.

Too bad Texas no longer has the firing squad, as any death delivered to this guy will be more humain than the death this officer was subjected to, allegedly at the hands of this so called person.