Thread: Mexican's better life ends in family tragedy

http://washingtontimes.com/metro/200609 ... -9910r.htm

Mexican's better life ends in family tragedy
By Brian Witte
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 11, 2006

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BALTIMORE -- When Ricardo Espinoza Perez paid smugglers $450 to help him sneak into the United States about 10 years ago, he thought the plan would help create a better life for him and the young family he temporarily left behind in Mexico.

However, those hopes ended in May 2004 when his son, daughter and nephew were murdered.

Mr. Perez's brother, Policarpio Espinoza Perez, 24, and nephew, Adan Canela, 19, were convicted of murdering the children, despite Mr. Perez's insistence that they did not commit the crimes.

"I never got in conflict with my brother and my nephew," he recently said.

Now, with two relatives facing life in prison, two others facing deportation in October and his own immigration status in limbo, Mr. Perez is frightened because he thinks the killers remain at large.

Police also suspect other relatives were involved. Detective Irvin C. Bradley of the Baltimore City Police Department said investigators are still asking questions and hope some relatives will resist intimidation within the family and come forward with information.

"This is a family with secrets," Detective Bradley said.

The family's illegal entry in the U.S. came to light as a result of the publicity surrounding the homicides.

Mr. Perez said he would like to remain in the country with his wife, Noemi Espinoza Quezada, 32, and their new baby daughter until he learns who really killed the children.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said the family's status is pending but declined to comment further.

The fact that the family was brought into the country by human smugglers has long hovered in the background of the complicated case involving the family from Tenenexpan, a town in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It fueled speculation that smugglers could have been connected to the killings.

Mr. Perez, 35, maintains his smugglers couldn't have been responsible because he didn't owe them money and the crimes occurred long after he and his family entered the country.

"I paid for everybody," he said.

Mr. Perez said he paid the smugglers to show him a path in 1996 to walk illegally across the border near Tijuana. He then flew from Los Angeles to New York, where he worked in a kitchen to earn $2,500 to pay smugglers to bring his wife and their two children across the border in 1997. The family moved in 2001 to Baltimore, and the children enrolled in public school.

On May 27, 2004, he and his wife returned home from work to find the nearly beheaded bodies of daughter Lucero Solis Quezada, 8; son Ricardo Solis Quezada Jr., 9; and their cousin, 10-year-old Alexis Espejo Quezada. Alexis had months earlier moved in with the family.

Mr. Perez and his wife think someone with a grudge against Alexis' mother is responsible for the killings, a theory that police discount. The mother has since distanced herself from the family, and police think she has moved to New York.

In a trial last year, which ended in a hung jury, prosecutors didn't offer a motive. Prosecutor Sharon Holback told jurors that the three children "lived in a home that was unsafe" because of "some secret" buried in the family. She said relatives were afraid to tell the truth. But in the second trial, she emphasized that although the reasons for the killings were not clear, the evidence was obvious.

It included testimony from a neighbor who said she saw the suspects two nights before the murders acting suspiciously in the back of the apartment building where the children lived. It also included a statement from Policarpio Espinoza Perez to police, in which he said he and Canela had been to the apartment shortly before the murders. He said he stayed in the car, while Canela went inside.

Mr. Perez said the men regularly visited the apartment.

The evidence also included two pairs of jeans with the children's blood and skin cells matching Policarpio Perez's and Canela's DNA. Prosecutors also presented a shoe worn by Policarpio Perez with a small drop of Lucero's blood. They also had two bloody gloves with DNA links to the two men.

Mr. Perez said he didn't believe the DNA evidence and complained that police failed to investigate people he suspected of committing the crimes.

Mr. Perez said he would like to remain in the country with his wife, Noemi Espinoza Quezada, 32, and their new baby daughter until he learns who really killed the children.

Perhaps he should join the other illegal trash in the Chicago Methodist Church.

I am sorry that he lost his family the way he did, but the fact remains that he is in our country illegally. He has no rights and no excuse to stay here.

He may never find out who murdered those children .Unfortunately that happens, look at the JonBenet case, 10 years later and still unsolved.

They need to go back home where they belong.

Mr. Perez's brother, Policarpio Espinoza Perez, 24, and nephew, Adan Canela, 19, were convicted of murdering the children, despite Mr. Perez's insistence that they did not commit the crimes.

Perhaps while he's awaiting deportation, he could join forces with O.J. and search for the real killers.

Mr. Perez said he paid the smugglers to show him a path in 1996 to walk illegally across the border near Tijuana. He then flew from Los Angeles to New York, where he worked in a kitchen to earn $2,500 to pay smugglers to bring his wife and their two children across the border in 1997. The family moved in 2001 to Baltimore, and the children enrolled in public school.

Aaaaah, what a sweet story of a sweet family immigrating to the U.S........NOT!!!

Send him, his wife and the anchor baby back. I am sorry for his loss but there are 25 AMERICANS killed by illegal's every day. Where are there stories?