Illegal immigrant convicted of hog-tyings, murder
By: Freeman Klopott
05/16/09 10:05 PM EDT

A 34-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador was found guilty of murdering a 63-year-old Bethesda woman and hog-tying and robbing three other widows.

A Montgomery County jury on Friday agreed with prosecutors that Jose Garcia-Perlera attacked the elderly women in their homes along the River Road corridor in Bethesda, Potomac and Chevy Chase. He beat Mary Havenstein, the woman in his last attack, to death.

When Garcia-Perlera was arrested in October, his case became the first of several attacks allegedly committed by illegal immigrants in Montgomery County that got media attention. Those crimes, including the shooting death of 14-year-old Tai Lam on a county bus, eventually led County Executive Ike Leggett to change the county’s policy regarding illegal immigrants. As of January, anyone accused of certain violent crimes has their name sent to federal officials who check their immigration status. The attacks against the four widowed women shook one of the wealthiest sections of the county to the core. As Garcia-Perlera’s attorney Samuel Delgado put it in his closing arguments Friday, “We know from evidence that we’re talking about affluent neighborhoods ... beautiful homes, beautiful lawns and art.â€