Stranger breaks into Mesa child’s bedroom
Daryl James, Tribune

A 24-year-old man broke through a window into a child’s bedroom while the boy slept this weekend, Mesa police said.

Court records show the mother awoke to the sounds of breaking glass and her son’s screams about 2:30 a.m. Saturday. She investigated and found a stranger bleeding in her 11-year-old son’s bedroom.

Police later identified the suspect as Oscar Lagunes Rivera, an illegal immigrant living about one-half mile from the victims near Eighth Avenue and Sirrine in west Mesa.

According to court records, the intruder jumped back through the broken window and left the scene. The mother told police she rushed to her front door and watched the man run south.

Police investigators found blood on the sidewalk and later found Rivera walking south in the neighborhood with blood on his pants and shirt.

An officer asked Rivera if he was OK, and Rivera said he was fine and had already been treated at a hospital for his injuries. Court records show Rivera told the officer he could not remember why he was in the neighborhood.

The mother and child identified Rivera as the intruder in their home, and police arrested him on suspicion of criminal trespassing and criminal damage. Neither charge would qualify as a serious felony, which means Proposition 100 would not apply to the case.

That proposition, which voters approved in November, denies bail for illegal immigrants accused of serious felonies.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/97612