Thread: Trial in gang killing case set to begin

Trial in gang killing case set to begin
Tuesday, September 18, 2007


(Photo by Michael Fischer) Juan Humberto Castillo-Alvarez is booked into the Clay County Jail 11 months ago after he was surrendered to the United States by Mexican authorities.

By Russ Mitchell

Daily Reporter Staff

An eight-day trial for Juan Humberto Castillo-Alvarez of Mexico is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. today in the Clay County Courthouse.

Castillo-Alvarez is the last of 10 suspects believed to have been involved in the June 1997 killing of Gregory Sky Erickson over a disputed drug debt.

He is charged with second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony.

Judge Don Courtney -- and not a jury -- will hear the case at the request of attorneys representing Castillo-Alvarez. He waived his right to a jury trial as part of a court filing on Aug. 31.

Court testimony from previous cases suggests the 15-year-old Erickson was acting as both a police informant on a drug case and was delinquent on a drug debt when he was kidnapped from an apartment in Spencer.

According to court records, members of the Los Krazy Boyz, an Estherville gang, were behind the abduction.

The investigation led authorities to conclude that he had been beaten and kidnapped at gunpoint in Clay County, then driven to Estherville, where prosecutors believe he was taken to meet with Castillo-Alvarez at Mexico Lindo, the restaurant he operated under the alias Ricardo Castillo.

After the meeting, Erickson was taken to Fort Defiance State Park near Estherville, where he was beaten again by numerous individuals. He was ultimately taken to an abandoned farmhouse in Jackson County, Minn., where he was shot in the head and his body was set on fire.

Castillo-Alvarez, the gang's suspected ringleader, disappeared as Minnesota authorities began their investigation. "A number of witnesses said he just took off and went to Mexico," after the body was found, said Mike Zenor, in the days after Castillo-Alvarez was brought back to Iowa.

An assistant prosecutor now, Zenor was the Clay County Attorney as clues led authorities back to the initial abduction in Spencer.

Federal investigators monitored the whereabouts of Castillo-Alvarez through contact with Mexican authorities -- "there were sightings" as Zenor put it, 11 months ago. A restaurant operator in Iowa, Castillo-Alvarez told deputies he earned his living in Mexico by selling cars during his nine years as a fugitive.

"I had periodic discussions with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI and they would tell me that the FBI agents in southern Texas knew where he was and were working with the Mexican federal authorities to get him arrested and get him back here," Zenor said, in his previous interview. "It was a long process. The details of exactly where he was at -- those things -- it didn't seem like it was relevant to me. I never inquired and don't know."

Zenor said he knew the whereabouts of Castillo-Alvarez was moot until the specifics of the extradition process could be navigated.

"Our office doesn't have the connections and just doesn't handle international extraditions," Zenor said. "The U.S. Attorney's Office does that through the State Department -- we didn't give up and they didn't either. This whole case, from the very first day until now has been, I think, a textbook example of cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement -- the DCI (Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation), the Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension, the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's Office, our office, the sheriff's office -- and not just our sheriff's office but the one up in Estherville, and on and on and on."

Once the diplomatic channels could be navigated, the extradition process came together quickly for Castillo-Alverez's return last fall. Clay County Sheriff Randy Krukow saw some details come together just a few days before the transport process began. Federal authorities then used an arrest warrant to bring Castillo-Alvarez over the border to Harris County, Texas. He was detained on a charge of flight to avoid prosecution.

Castillo-Alverez was then brought into Houston, taken before a magistrate where the flight to avoid prosecution was cancelled and he was held on the Clay County warrants for kidnapping and conspiracy, according to Krukow.

The sheriff had to stay in Spencer until he could confirm that Castillo-Alvarez had waived extradition to Iowa. The process would have been delayed for about 90 days if Castillo-Alvarez had resisted the process.

"Then it was about making the arrangements and making flight plans between the FBI and my office for (their agent) and I to go down there and making those connections once we got down there," Krukow said last fall.

Krukow was met by FBI agents at the airport in Houston. Castillo-Alvarez was brought to the airport by two Harris County deputies.

"What needed to happen is what did happen," Zenor said at the time. "Extradition is a really, really formal process where we get certified copies of all the charging documents and get affidavits from judges and clerks of court, certifying that these are true copies and then I put together a long affidavit."

Zenor and Clay County Attorney Mike Houchins sent the affidavit to the State Department to be translated to Spanish before it was sent to to Mexico. The Mexican State Department then reviewed the paperwork and used it to decide if the accusations against Castillo-Alvarez warranted the extradition.

Several suspects who were convicted in the kidnapping and death of Erickson, have been listed in court records as material witnesses in the Castillo-Alverez case, though some may not be called on to testify.

The list included Luis Lua who was convicted for firing the bullet that ended Erickson's life. He has been detained at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility in Tucson, Ariz.

Shawn Knakmuhs has been detained at a federal penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas, and was on the witness list. So was Aurelio Ortiz, who has been held at a federal prison in Marion, Ill.

Another name on the witness list, Juan Carlos Astello, is in the state system and has been housed at Anamosa State Penitentiary.

http://www.spencerdailyreporter.com/story/1277768.html

WHY WERE THE POLICE USING A 15 YEAR OLD KID AS AN INFORMANT?