Previously-Deported Illegal Alien Charged With Murdering Washington Woman And Her Son

Previously-Deported Illegal Alien Charged With Murdering Washington Woman And Her Son

CHUCK ROSS
Reporter

2:40 PM 07/07/2015

An illegal alien from Mexico who was deported last year is accused of fatally shooting and burning a Washington woman and her son.
Prudencio Fragos-Ramirez, 25, was arraigned on Monday and is being held on $1 million bail for the murders of 18-year-old Maria Cruiz-Calvillo and her 3-year-old son, Luis Lopez-Cruz, the Tri-City Herald reports.
The pair’s burned bodies were discovered in a remote area on Thursday. The two had gunshot wounds, but the boy was likely still alive when the car was set ablaze, according to Franklin County coroner Dan Blasdel.
Prosecutors allege that Fragos-Ramirez had just begun dating Cruiz-Calvillo and killed her out of jealousy. He was last seen by a neighbor after Cruiz-Calvillo and Lopez-Cruz arrived at his house in Pasco, a small town in central Washington. The three drove away in Cruiz-Calvillo’s car, which was found ablaze 30 minutes later in a ravine, according to court documents.
Fragos-Ramirez was arrested just hours into the double-murder investigation. He denied any wrongdoing but gave conflicting accounts to police. He said he recently owned a handgun but sold it to Cruiz-Calvillo. He told investigators that his brother witnessed the gun sell, but the brother denied the claim.
According to the Tri-City Herald, Fragos-Ramirez was last deported in 2014 but had re-entered the country illegally. He has a rap sheet that includes charges for DUI and driving with a suspended license.

Fragos-Ramirez is listed on Franklin County’s jail roster as a white male.

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The case comes amid renewed attention on homicides carried out by previously-deported illegal aliens.
Francisco Sanchez, a 45-year-old five-time deportee, has admitted to shooting 32-year-old Kate Steinle in broad daylight at a popular San Francisco tourist destination last week. Besides the numerous deportations, Sanchez had seven felonies on his record. He was released by the San Francisco sheriff’s department in April. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has blamed the sheriff’s department in that case claiming that it ignored a detainer request to notify federal agents before releasing Sanchez.
The department declined to honor the detainer request because San Francisco is a sanctuary city. That means that local agencies are prohibited from turning illegal aliens over to federal immigration agencies.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/07/previously-deported-illegal-alien-charged-with-murdering-washington-woman-and-her-son/

Teen mother and son identified as victims of double murder, boyfriend held on $1 million bail

BY TYLER RICHARDSON
Tri-City HeraldJuly 6, 2015

http://media.tri-cityherald.com/smed...s.AuSt.13.jpeg
Court interpreter Ana Armijo, left, translates for double murder suspect Prudencio Fragos-Ramirez Monday afternoon in Franklin County Superior Court. He is held on $1 million bail in the double murder of an adult and child found burned in a Franklin County ravine.

BOB BRAWDY — Tri-City Herald

Family members suspect jealousy may have led to the gruesome slayings of an Othello teen and her 3-year-old son found shot and severely burned in a remote part of Franklin County.

Maria G. Cruiz-Calvillo, 18, and Luis F. Lopez-Cruz were identified Monday as the bodies found last week inside a vehicle that was set on fire in a ravine near the intersection of Scootney and Ridge roads.

Luis likely was still alive when the car went up in flames, according to Dan Blasdel, Franklin County coroner.
Luis would have turned four years old on Thursday.

“She was a really good person. She was always smiling,” said Karen Rodriguez, a sister-in-law of Cruiz-Calvillo who spoke for the family. “He was a happy kid. He was really playful and loved to be outside.”

Prudencio Juan Fragos-Ramirez, 25, of Connell, reportedly had recently started dating Cruiz-Calvillo and is suspected of killing the pair.

Fragos-Ramirez was arrested hours into the investigation at his home less than a mile from where the bodies were found. He appeared Monday in Franklin County Superior Court, where Judge Carrie Runge set bail at $1 million.

Runge ordered Fragos-Ramirez, who has previous convictions for DUI and driving while suspended, held for up to 72 hours while prosecutors determine what charges to file. Prosecutors say Fragos-Ramirez was deported in 2014 and got back into the country illegally.

The sheriff’s office initially spelled his name Flagos-Ramirez, but court records show it’s spelled Fragos-Ramirez.
Family members had never met Fragos-Ramirez, though Cruiz-Calvillo talked to her mother about a guy she was seeing, whom she apparently referred to by the nickname “Loco,” Rodriguez said.

“(The family) thinks she never wanted a serious relationship with him,” Rodriguez said. “It’s jealousy.”

Cruiz-Calvillo and Luis had gunshot wounds, Blasdel said. Tests to confirm whether they were still alive when the fire started have been requested.

Firefighters found the bodies July 2 as they battled the car fire near a large orchard, court documents said. Franklin County deputies discovered the license plates were registered to an Othello man, who told investigators his niece, Cruiz-Calvillo, drove the vehicle.

Family members last saw Cruiz-Calvillo the afternoon of her death as she was leaving Othello with Luis for Pasco to make a car payment, court documents said. She routinely went to Pasco to make car payments.

“We checked with the bank,” Rodriguez said. “She made the payment at 3:43 (p.m.).”

Two neighbors saw Cruiz-Calvillo and Luis arrive at Fragos-Ramirez’s home about 4:40 p.m., court documents said. The neighbors recognized the mother and son because they frequent the house on Hogback Road.

Between 10 and 20 minutes later, the neighbors saw the pair and Fragos-Ramirez walking towards Cruiz-Calvillo’s car, court documents said. They didn’t see Fragos-Ramirez return to the house and didn’t see him again until about 7 p.m.

Smoke was spotted coming from the ravine where the bodies were found about 20 to 30 minutes after the trio was seen leaving the home. It took detectives eight minutes to drive from the home to the spot where the bodies were found.
Detectives were able to track down Fragos-Ramirez for an interview after Cruiz-Calvillo’s brother, Arturo Calvillo,
remembered meeting a man who matched the description of Fragos-Ramirez while at a house on church business, court documents said. Calvillo took Detective Jason Nunez to the house, and Nunez contacted a woman there.

The woman told Nunez she had a brother who was at the house when Calvillo came over, court documents said. She called Fragos-Ramirez and handed the phone to Nunez, who then set up an interview.

Fragos-Ramirez told Nunez he last had contact with Cruiz-Calvillo about 2:30 p.m. the day she was killed and had not heard from or seen her since, court documents said. Nunez arrested Fragos-Ramirez on an outstanding warrant and booked him into jail.

After Nunez spoke to the neighbors, he interviewed Fragos-Ramirez again, court documents said. Fragos-Ramirez claimed Cruiz-Calvillo came to his house about 5:10 p.m. to bring him cigarettes.

“He said he last saw (Cruiz-Calvillo) and her son leaving his property in her vehicle,” Nunez wrote in a probable cause affidavit. “He said her son was in the back seat in a child seat.”

Nunez searched Fragos-Ramirez’s home and found three clean boxes of .9-mm ammunition stashed in a tire in a dusty shed on the property, court documents said. Fragos-Ramirez admitted to recently having a .9-mm handgun, but claimed he sold it to Cruiz-Calvillo three days before the murders for $300 “because he needed the money for a party he was throwing that day.”

Fragos-Ramirez claimed his brother, Isabel Fragoza, had seen him sell the gun to Cruiz-Calvillo, court documents said. Fragoza denied the claim and told Nunez he had seen his brother with a handgun recently, but didn’t know what happened to the gun.

“(Fragos-Ramirez) remarked that if we found the gun used to kill (Cruiz-Calvillo) and her son, we would find his fingerprints on it,” Nunez wrote in the affidavit.

Authorities booked Fragos-Ramirez for two counts of first-degree murder after determining he was seen with the victims shortly before they were killed and that he was unaccounted for when they died.

Prosecutors said in court Monday that Fragos-Ramirez could possibly be charged with aggravated first-degree murder, which carries an automatic sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Rodriguez said her family is having trouble understanding how someone could take the life of a child so violently.
“They couldn’t explain how that person had the heart to do that,” she said. “It was really shocking. It was really hurtful.”

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2015/0...#storylink=cpy