Suspect in Kansas kidnapping case in country illegally (update)
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Immigration officials say a Dallas woman accused of killing a mother and abducting her baby was living in the country illegally when she was released from a Kansas jail this summer before federal authorities could request she be detained in connection with a previous kidnapping incident.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday it did not receive the July 25 arrest list from the sheriff's office showing Yesenia Sesmas' name until the following day. By then the Mexican national had been released. The agency says it would have asked she be held if it had been advised in time.
The sheriff's office says Sesmas was released on bond within 24 hours.
She is in a Dallas jail accused of killing a Wichita woman last week and abducting her baby.
http://www.kxxv.com/story/33785474/s...ntry-illegally
Kansas Killing, Abduction Suspect Living in US Illegally
By ROXANA HEGEMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS WICHITA, Kan. — Nov 23, 2016, 7:09 PM ET
A Dallas woman accused of killing a Wichita mother and taking her baby was in the country illegally when she was released from a Kansas jail this summer before immigration officials had a chance to request she be held, law enforcement authorities said Wednesday.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not receive the July 25 list of arrests from the Sedgwick County sheriff's office showing Yesenia Sesmas' name on it until the following day, and by that time she had already been released from local custody, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok. The agency would have asked that she be detained if Sesmas, a Mexican national, had still been in jail, he said.
Sesmas posted bond and was released less than 24 hours after her arrest in that case, said Col. Brenda Dietzman, undersheriff for the Sedgwick County sheriff's office.
Even if ICE had made the request, it is not clear that the county would have honored it. Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter announced in 2014 that the jail would no longer honor ICE requests to hold inmates unless the agency presents a warrant or court order requiring them to hold an inmate in custody longer. The policy change stems from an 3rd Circuit appeals court ruling finding a Pennsylvania jail unjustly held a man on suspicion he might be in the unlawfully in the country after he posted bail. Several jails across the country have refused to automatically honor ICE requests after the American Civil Liberties Union warned they could be sued.
Now if Sedgwick County gets a request a hold on an inmate, jail officials call the agency about 2 to 3 hours before that person is released, and tell ICE "if you want them come get them," Dietzman said.
Sedgwick County officials say they have no record of an ICE request to hold Sesmas when she was in custody in Kansas in the summer for allegedly threatening another Wichita woman with a knife and trying to hold that woman's two daughters for Ransom.
Sesmas never showed up for her August court hearing in that case and was a fugitive until her arrest Saturday during a pre-dawn raid at her Dallas home following last week's killing of another Wichita woman, Laura Abarca-Nogueda, and the abduction of Abarca-Nogueda's 6-day-old daughter Sophia. The girl was found safe and reunited with family.
ICE said it asked the Dallas jail to detain Sesmas following her recent arrest.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Wednesday he does not know whether his office was aware of Sesmas' immigration case at the time of the earlier kidnapping case, but said he believed that an ICE hold meant a person can't get out of jail.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/k...gally-43749455
Jail had to release alleged killer of baby Sofia’s mom, sheriff says
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/lww...VDT_L275508775
DECEMBER 2, 2016 6:38 PM
Tim Potter
The Sedgwick County Jail had no choice but to release Yesenia Sesmas this summer, Sheriff Jeff Easter says.
At the time, the woman had been charged with attacking a pregnant Wichita mother and trying to abduct the woman’s young children.
Sesmas got out of jail on July 26 when she posted bond 22 hours after her arrest. Sesmas, who is said to be in the country illegally, never showed up for her Aug. 9 court appearance.
On Nov. 17, less than four months after she got out of jail, Sesmas – still a fugitive – killed a former co-worker, Laura Abarca-Nogueda, and abducted Abarca-Nogueda’s newborn daughter, Sofia, Wichita police said.
“My sister could have been alive if she (Sesmas) was still in jail,” Jose Abarca, the victim’s older brother, said Friday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the jail released Sesmas in July before it had a chance to ask that she be detained to determine her immigration status. The Associated Press has reported that Sesmas, 34, is a Mexican national and was in the United States illegally.
But Easter says because of court rulings, the jail must release someone when they post bond or it could be held liable for unjustly holding someone.
ICE needs to get a warrant from a federal judge for the jail to hold a person, Easter said.
That stance has been in place at the Sedgwick County Jail for more than two years.
Since that time, ICE has yet to get a warrant to hold a Sedgwick County inmate, Easter said.
For a year and a half, Easter said, his office has been talking with ICE officials to avoid the situation that led to Sesmas’ release.
Dallas-based ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok on Friday gave this account of her release: On July 26, ICE officers received a list of the July 25 arrests from the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office. The list included Sesmas. “However, Sesmas had already been released from local custody by the time ICE received and processed the Sheriff’s list,” Rusnok said.
Sesmas was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail at 11:50 p.m. Monday, July 25, and released at 9:58 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, after posting a $50,000 bond, Easter said.
Easter said ICE had up to 12 hours to check the list after it was provided by the jail.
Sheriff’s stance
Easter maintains that his jail and others can’t continue to hold someone who has posted bond unless ICE gets a warrant from a federal judge to hold the person.
In one court case that Easter has cited – Galarza v. Szalczyk – the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit found that officials in Lehigh County, Pa., unjustly held a man for three days after he was supposed to be released, on suspicion that he might be an illegal immigrant. Later, immigration officials determined that the man was a U.S. citizen.
Even if a warrant wasn’t required, Easter said this past week, ICE could have detained Sesmas at the jail for only 48 hours while it determined whether she was legally in the country.
Easter said his office has met with ICE officials to avoid the very situation that led to Sesmas’ release.
One way to avoid that is to establish the jail – the largest in Kansas – as an ICE holding facility. With that status, a warrant wouldn’t be required. “That’s the way ICE has explained it to me,” Easter said Thursday.
Under such an agreement, the Sheriff’s Office would be able to hold someone for ICE for up to 72 hours, he said.
Officials have been trying to accomplish that for a year and a half, Easter said. Part of that process involves an inspection of the jail. An inspection has been conducted, but the Sheriff’s Office hasn’t heard back from ICE, Easter said.
Dallas jail situation
For now, Sesmas awaits an extradition process that would bring her from the Dallas jail to the Wichita jail to face the charges in the Nov. 17 killing and abduction.
ICE placed a detainer on Sesmas with the Dallas County Jail, Rusnok said.
“A detainer requests that ICE is notified before local authorities release an alien who has been arrested on criminal charges,” Rusnok said in an e-mail.
The Dallas jail doesn’t require warrants for inmates who are under ICE detainer requests, said Melinda Urbina, spokeswoman for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office.
Still, while that is the situation in Dallas, any jail not requiring a warrant is taking the risk of being sued, Easter said.
ICE has staff in the Dallas County Jail 24 hours a day and is “constantly reviewing the inmates booked into our jail,” Urbina said in an e-mail. “They provide us with a paper ICE detainer form that asks the Dallas County Sheriff to hold an individual for 48 hours after their Dallas County charges are completed or settled.”
Bond considerations
That bond amount and above would be typical for the charges Sesmas was facing, District Attorney Marc Bennett said. The bond amount is supposed to take into account the risk that a defendant poses to the public and the risk that he or she will flee. The fact that someone might be in the country illegally doesn’t necessarily mean a judge will view them as susceptible to fleeing, Bennett said.
Part of the so-called flight risk is based on whether someone has ties to the community. Sesmas had lived in and worked in Wichita for years. She had family in Wichita, according to court records. She had no significant criminal record before she was charged this summer.
In the July case, an eight-months-pregnant woman alleged that Sesmas invited her to her Wichita rental home, brought out a knife and duct tape and tried to abduct her two young daughters for a ransom. The pregnant woman said she had to fight off Sesmas and was trying escape with her daughters when Wichita police arrived and arrested Sesmas.
(video at source link)
After her arrest last month in the shooting of Abarca-Nogueda and the kidnapping of Abarca-Nogeuda’s baby, Sesmas said in a Dallas jailhouse interview that she didn’t mean to kill the new mother. Sesmas said she and Abarca-Nogueda had an agreement that Sesmas would take the baby. But Abarca-Nogueda’s family says that is a ridiculous claim, that Abarca-Nogueda was ecstatic about being a new mom.
After an intensive investigation, a SWAT team found baby Sofia at a Dallas home and arrested Sesmas. Sofia, six days old when she was stolen from her mother’s west Wichita apartment, has been returned to her family.
ICE staffing
At the Sedgwick County Jail, ICE staff doesn’t work nights or weekends but gets booking sheets every morning on who has been arrested, Easter said. ICE would have been able to see – starting more than 12 hours before Sesmas bonded out – that she was being held in the jail, Easter said.
The sheriff’s staff doesn’t have access to federal databases that show whether someone is in the country legally, he said. ICE personnel check their databases. But if someone bonds out quickly, ICE might not be able to intervene in time, Easter said.
The sheriff said he has been told by an ICE supervisor that the federal agency doesn’t have enough personnel in Kansas.
Rusnok, the ICE spokesman, said he can’t discuss staffing for security reasons.
Easter said: “I’m not blaming ICE for this, but it’s the system that is broke, and it’s got to be fixed.”
The sheriff said he believes that anyone illegally in the country who commits a crime should be deported after they have been held accountable.
But holding them for ICE – without a warrant – is out of his control “because of these court rulings,” Easter said.
He said he understands what the family of the slain young mother is going through.
In 1996, his brother, sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Easter, was shot and killed in the line of duty – by a fugitive.
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/cri...118588343.html
Woman Who Shot a Mom & Stole Her Baby is Calling It an 'Accident.' Authorities Say It
Woman Who Shot a Mom & Stole Her Baby is Calling It an 'Accident.' Authorities Say It’s Just Part of Her Scheme
BY SARA VALLONE
7 HOURS AGO
On November 17th, the father of a six-day-old baby girl came home from work to find his 27-year-old girlfriend, Laura Abarca-Nogueda, shot to death and their infant daughter nowhere to be found.
It was reported earlier that because the Wichita, Kansas police department and the FBI initially had difficulties pinning down suspects they believed were responsible for Laura's murder and kidnapping her child, an Amber Alert wasn't released until more than 24 hours later.
However, it was only a short time after nailing down two potential suspects that the authorities were able to find Laura's then 6-day-old daughter, Sophia.
According to People, Sophia was found with 34-year-old Yesenia Sesmas at her Dallas apartment. Sesmas's boyfriend, son, and niece were also in the apartment when police conducted their search around 4:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
Police believed Abarca-Nogueda and Sesmas, who lived in Wichita earlier this year, had been acquainted with each other for at least a couple of years.
Wichita police lieutenant Todd Ojile also revealed to the media during a press conference that they believe Sesmas stole the child after faking her own pregnancy for several months.
An unharmed Sophia was eventually placed back into her family's loving embrace.
Now, CBS DFW is reporting that Sesmas specifically traveled to Witchita with the purpose of taking Laura's baby back to Dallas.
Sesmas allegedly claimed while speaking Spanish during an interview with KUVN, that Laura had agreed to give her the child in August, but went back on her “promise.”
She also claimed that Laura “already had three abortions and that she didn't want the baby”:
“I told her that I had already lost a baby and asked if she would give me her baby and she said 'Yes.'”
In the same interview, Sesmas reportedly admitted to killing Laura, but that she didn't want to kill her, claiming the gun she brought to intimidate Laura accidentally went off.
However, as CBS DFW reports, police believe Sesmas's story is all part of her elaborate scheme and that this may not have been the first time she tried to steal a child.
Sesmas was previously arrested on two assault charges after taking another woman and her children hostage. According to The Wichita Eagle, Sesmas was released from jail after posting bail, but because she didn't appear in court on August 9, the 34-year-old was considered a fugitive at the time of Laura's murder.
As The Wichita Eagle reports:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the jail released Sesmas in July before it had a chance to ask that she be detained to determine her immigration status. The Associated Press has reported that Sesmas is a Mexican national and was in the United States illegally.
Laura's brother, Jose, told The Witchita Eagle:
“My sister could have been alive if she (Sesmas) was still in jail.”
Sheriff Jeff Easter says that at the time Sesmas posted bonded, the jail was required to release her. According to The Wichita Eagle:
Easter says because of court rulings, the jail must release someone when they post bond or it could be held liable for unjustly holding someone.
In order to continue holding someone, according to Easter, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is required to obtain a warrant from a federal judge. No such warrant was obtained at the time of Sesmas's release.
Currently, Sesmas remains in a Dallas jail on a Kansas warrant while authorities try to extradite her back to Witchita. She is expected to be charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping.
While Sophia and Abarca-Nogueda's family are thankful baby Sophia was unharmed by her mother's alleged killer, they admit that they are heartbroken at the loss of a “vibrant” mother.
Wichita police lieutenant Todd Ojile told the media that finding Sophia “was the best possible outcome” they could have had in this case.
http://ijr.com/2016/12/751091-woman-...of-her-scheme/
Illegal immigrant found guilty of killing Kansas mom, kidnapping her 6-day old baby
1 day ago
By Travis Fedschun | Fox News
http://a57.foxnews.com/images.foxnew....jpg?ve=1&tl=1
Baby Sophia Victoria Gonzalez Abarca, who went missing after her mother was shot to death, and Yesenia Sesma (inset) who was convicted of killing Sophia's 27-year-old mother, Laura Abarca-Nogueda, and taking the child to Texas. (Wichita Police/Dallas County Sheriff's Office)
A woman who faked a pregnancy for several months was found guilty on Tuesday of killing her former co-worker and kidnapping the victim's newborn baby with the intent to raise the child as her own.
Yesenia Sesmas, 36, an illegal immigrant who was living in Dallas at the time, drove to Wichita, Kan. to shoot 27-year-old Laura Abarca on Nov. 17, 2016, and kidnap 6-day-old Sophia Gonzales. The baby was found safe two days later in Sesmas' Dallas apartment and was returned to relatives.
Jurors deliberated for less than three hours on Tuesday and found Sesmas guilty of first-degree premeditated and intentional murder, kidnapping and interference with parental custody.
“We really wanted to go through this trial and have justice. And I think that happened today,” Jose Abarca, the victim’s older brother, told the Wichita Eagle.
During the trial, prosecutors said that Sesmas faked a pregnancy for months after suffering a miscarriage and, when she found out Abarca had given birth, drove to Wichita to kill her and take the baby. The two women had worked together at a Wichita restaurant years earlier.
Sesmas was in the country illegally and was arrested the summer before the killing for threatening another Wichita woman and trying to hold the woman’s two daughters for ransom. But she was mistakenly released from custody because of a bureaucratic mix-up.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said at the time it did not receive the July 25 list of arrests from the Sedgwick County sheriff's office showing Yesenia Sesmas' name on it until the following day, and by that time she had already been released from local custody, the Associated Press reported at the time. The agency would have asked that she be detained if Sesmas, a Mexican national, had still been in jail, a spokesman told the AP at the time.
During the six-day trial, prosecutors focused on the 36-year-old's intentions, including how during the faking of her pregnancy Sesmas prepared for a new baby. Sesmas even had a baby shower and had reached a point where she "was either going to have to come home with a baby" or explain her lies to those who knew her, according to the Eagle.
"When she walked into that apartment on Nov. 17, 2016, there were only two ways for this to end," Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said. Sesmas went back to Texas thinking "she would wake up and raise that baby and her life would begin," he said.
In a jailhouse interview with KUVN-TV, Sesmas said Abarca had agreed to hand over the baby to her, but during an apparent dispute she said she accidentally shot her. Public defender Jason Smartt called the killing "unplanned and spontaneous," according to the Eagle.
"She didn't know that (the gun) was going to fire, and she was surprised when it did," he said.
Sesmas faces life in prison plus the possibility of additional time when she is sentenced on July 13.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/06/06...-old-baby.html
