Thread: Prosecutor: Murder suspect an illegal alien

Prosecutor: Murder suspect an illegal alien

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

By CAROL COMEGNO
Courier-Post Staff
MOUNT HOLLY

A man accused of fatally shooting a Burlington City man and wounding his former girlfriend over the weekend is an illegal alien and a street gang member, a prosecutor told a judge Tuesday.

The suspect, Jesus Avila, 22, of Kinsley Road in Pemberton Township, remained in the Burlington County Jail Tuesday after a Superior Court judge reaffirmed his $1 million bail.

Deputy first assistant county prosecutor James Ronca said Avila was not only an undocumented alien from Mexico but was out on bail on a minor charge when the shootings occurred Saturday.

Avila is charged with killing Gilbert Parra, 19, of Burlington City and wounding a 17-year-old girl, identified as Avila's former girlfriend, in the ankle.

Ronca said the shootings followed an argument over the girl that began on the telephone and continued after Avila drove to the house on the 400 block of Washington Street with three friends. The prosecutor said Parra was found lying outside the house while the girl was inside the home when she was shot.

"Jail personnel said they saw tattoos identifying him (Avila) as a member of a street gang, but I want to emphasize this murder was not gang-related," Ronca told Superior Court Judge Patricia LeBon.

Ronca did not identify the gang.

He also said a number of eyewitnesses who knew the defendant can place him at the scene of the crime, adding to other evidence in what the prosecutor considers a strong case against him.

Speaking through a court interpreter, Avila asked for a court-appointed lawyer to represent him but made no other comment and kept his head down during his court appearance via closed circuit television from the jail. He is charged with murder, aggravated assault and illegal possession of a firearm.

Parra's family members began to cry during the proceeding and were cautioned by a sheriff's officer not to disrupt the court proceedings. They made no comment afterward.

Ronca said Avila was charged previously with a creating a false public alarm and was free on $5,000 bail that had been set July 11 by Superior Court Judge James Morley. However, Ronca had no details of the earlier arrest.

LeBon granted Ronca's request to keep bail high after he said Avila was a flight risk mainly because of his illegal status in the U.S. and the earlier arrest.

Reach Carol Comegno at (609) 267-9486 or ccomegno@courierpostonline.com

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Prosecutor says accused killer is an illegal immigrant

By MIKE MATHIS
Burlington County Times

MOUNT HOLLY — A Pemberton Township man was in the country illegally and free on bail in another case when he wounded his ex-girlfriend and killed her boyfriend Saturday, a prosecutor said.

Jesus A. Avila, 22, a native of Mexico who now lives on Kinsley Road in Pemberton Township, shot Gilbert Parra and the 17-year-old girl outside a house on Washington Avenue in Burlington City, said James A. Ronca, deputy first assistant Burlington County prosecutor.

Ronca said Avila was in the United States illegally, but he did not know how long the suspect has been in the country.

Ronca said Avila killed Parra while free on $5,000 bail for creating a false public alarm. Ronca did not know the circumstances surrounding the charge, but state law says the charge can be filed against someone who initiates or circulates a false warning about a fire, a bomb or a similar emergency.

A judge yesterday kept Avila's bail at $1 million during the suspect's first court appearance since his arrest Saturday.

Avila was being held in Burlington County Jail on charges of murder, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Ronca told Superior Court Judge Patricia Richmond LeBon that Avila has tattoos that identify him as a gang member. Ronca emphasized, however, that the killing was not related to gang activity.

After the hearing, Ronca said an argument that led to the shooting was prompted by Avila's harassment of the girl, whose name has not been released.

Police officers who responded to a 911 call of a shooting at about 3:10 a.m. found Parra lying outside the Burlington City house and the girl inside the house, prosecutors said.

Parra, 19, of Burlington City had been shot several times. He was flown by helicopter to Capital Health System's Fuld Campus in Trenton, where he was pronounced dead.

The girl was taken to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where she treated for a gunshot wound to the ankle.

Avila was arrested about 3:25 a.m. after a truck in which he was riding was stopped on Arney's Mount Road in Pemberton Township, prosecutors said. Three men in the truck with Avila were not charged.
E-mail: mmathis@phillyBurbs.com

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