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Agent: Franco's boyfriend fled to Mexico after fatal school bus crash
By John Brewer
jbrewer@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 08/01/2008 01:18:14 PM CDT


Attached is a photo of Olga M. Franco, 24, the Guatemalan native accused of killing four children and injuring 17 more people when the van she was in crashed into a Cottonwood, Minn., school bus Feb. 19. Franco's trial starts Monday, July 28, in Willmar. She is being held in the Kandiyohi County Jail. WILLMAR — An Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent testified for the prosecution today that he tracked down the boyfriend of Olga Franco to Mexico, and that a family member said the boyfriend described being in a serious car crash where people were hurt and dead.

The testimony came on the second day of Franco's trial in Kandiyohi County, where she faces multiple felony counts for her alleged role in a Feb. 19 accident that killed four children in Cottonwood.

The ICE agent, Jeremy Christenson, told jurors that he tried to locate the boyfriend, Francisco Sangabriel-Mendoza, after finding his identification papers in the home he shared with Franco in Minneota.

A federal warrant was issued for his arrest on suspected immigration violations.

The agent interviewed family members of Sangabriel-Mendoza in Willmar, Illinois and Texas beginning Feb. 28 and determined that the man had hit up family in Willmar and Illinois for money so he could travel to Texas and into Mexico.

The agents told jurors that Sangabriel-Mendoza even told his sister in Willmar that he was in an accident and people were injured and killed.

Sangabriel-Mendoza called the sister again Feb. 26, according to Christenson, to say that he had arrived safely in his hometown of La Pesca, on the Gulf Coast of Mexico.

Christenson testified that he tried to secure a federal order to extradite Sangabriel-Mendoza, but the request was denied.

Prosecutor Rick Maes also brought in


Susy Campos, the interpreter who assisted Minnesota State Trooper Dana Larsen during a bedside interview with Franco at Avera Marshall Hospital in Marshall the day of the crash.
After Campos pointed out Franco as the woman she interpreted for, defense attorney Manuel Guerrero objected to the witness testimony.

Guerrero questioned Campos's background, which did not include formal training as an interpreter. He also asked her if she noticed differences in Spanish-language dialects or if she knew what verbatim interpreting was.

She did not.

Guerrero's most significant complaint was that Campos appeared to answer questions from Larsen during the interview without posing the questions to Franco in Spanish.

Referring to a transcript of the interview where Larsen asks if Franco has a driver's license, Guerrero said, "You don't even ask Ms. Franco what Trooper Larsen asked you."

"I do not remember not asking her any questions," Campos replied.

Maes countered that it was possible that sections of the transcript labeled "inaudible" could include the questions from Campos to Franco.

Guerrero still objected to the witness's testimony, and after a 30-minute recess, she did not return to the courtroom.

Just before the lunch recess today, Maes brought in a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent who testified to finding DNA evidence in the form of blood on both the driver- and passenger-side airbags from the crashed minivan.

Both samples produced a DNA profile for a man, said agent Amy Liberty. Neither matched a known sample of Franco's DNA.

A general swab of other bodily fluids from both bags turned up only a DNA profile for a man — the same one from the blood samples — on the passenger airbag.

The agent said that after a crash, blood could be transferred as people move around a vehicle — she had seen the same DNA profile come from two airbags in other cases, she said.

Guerrero asked if it would be possible for the blood to show up on the passenger's airbag if a bloody driver reached over and put it there.

She said it was possible.

Guerrero has said his defense will put the boyfriend in the driver's seat during the crash.

In testimony Thursday, several emergency responders to the scene said they found Franco in the van's driver's seat, her foot pinned behind the gas pedal.

Testimony will continue this afternoon.

John Brewer can be reached at 651-246-2539.


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