Thread: TX - APD: Serial sex assault suspect arrested

Photo: Austin Police Department

AUSTIN - Surveillance video from a North Austin gas station helped police solve a series of violent sexual assault cases.

Nicodemo Coria-Gonzalez, 27, is charged with two counts of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated assault and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. According to court documents, he had a "Modus Operandi" of picking up women from areas that are typically frequented by prostitutes and taking them to a secluded area off of Ferguson Lane where he would violently sexually assault them.

The affidavit identified one of his victims as a 68-year old woman who used a cane to walk. In late July, police say he saw her on West Saint Johns and offered her a ride to the store. The document goes on to state that he passed up the store and when the woman tried to open the door to get out of his car, he sped up. He allegedly drove her to a dirt road off Ferguson Lane, against her will, where he assaulted and raped her.

The same ares is where he allegedly took a self-identified prostitute. The woman told police she got in Coria-Gonzalez's car and he said he was taking her to his apartment. As they drove, she said she began to feel uneasy, told him she changed her mind, and asked him to let her out of but he allegedly refused and instead took her to the area off Ferguson Lane. The woman described the area as wooded and surrounded by tall grass. She said he retrieved a red gas can and began to pour what the woman believed was gasoline around her feet.

She managed to run away and hide in a nearby drainage ditch then wave down a driver for help.

Officers were able to catch him after connecting him to another crime. In June, a stabbing victim called police to file a report. She said a man offered her a ride to the Valero gas station on Parkfield Drive. After they left, he asked her to get in the back seat of his car. When she didn't comply, she said he got angry and took her to a grassy area across the street from the gas station where the two got into a struggle and he stabbed her.

The car and description were similar to Coria-Gonzalez. Austin Police Sex Crimes Detective Robert Thompson was working a similar case and retrieved the gas station surveillance video from APD's robbery unit to compare.

"We had a rough description of his vehicle from a lot of different victims. When we see the vehicle that he pulls into this parking lot with we're able to, not positively determine that it was the same vehicle but there was enough that we felt, yes this is potentially the same individual," said Thompson.

Officers put out a "Be On the Look Out" alert and saw Coria-Gonzalez driving his car in August. He was arrested for the stabbing incident and also told detectives he would take prostitutes to "his garden" where he said they would have "consensual intercourse." He added that in some cases, the woman raised the agreed upon price and he beat them.

Police say he admitted to taking six women to the location. Officers have linked him to 10 cases since December 2015. They say half of his victims are prostitutes. They also believe there could be more victims and are asking anyone with information to call 311 and file a report.

Coria-Gonzalez is currently in the Travis County Jail custody with a total bond set at $890,000. He is also being held on an ICE detainer.

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/apd-m...rden/314515913

Suspected serial rapist who allegedly tried to burn victims alive was deported 5 times, police say

By Fox4
Published September 08, 2016
Fox News Latino

AUSTIN, TEXAS - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said a man accused of serial rape in the Austin area was deported five times before his most recent arrest in August.

Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales faces six charges including aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping.

Police said Coria-Gonzalez admitted he had picked up prostitutes and beat them out of anger. He is currently being held without bond on an immigration detainer.

“There’s bad, really bad people, who want to do us real harm who are coming at us from all different directions: north, south, east and west,” said immigration specialist Thomas Esparza, Jr.

If the allegations against him are true, Nicodemo Coria-Gonzalez illegally immigrated to the United States six times and then sexually abused several women.

“If that guy came back, he came back to do us ill, but there's not that many people who are able to come back that often and that successfully. That's the kind of person that even immigration lawyers are going to say, ‘You know, he should be prosecuted,’” said Esparza.

In August, Coria-Gonzalez was arrested after a woman told police he tried to set her on fire. While investigating, officers realized he had sexually assaulted several women in a secluded area off Ferguson Lane.

Investigators also learned Coria-Gonzalez had previous charges that convinced U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport him five times.

“Five times deported and he's still here? What did he do the first time to get himself deported? And why didn't he learn after the second or the third or the fourth time? But already five times? And he's still back? He's a determined son of a gun, but at some point the dance is over and so, unfortunately, the dance is going to be over for him and he's going to be in jail,” Esparza said.

ICE said Coria-Gonzales was previously convicted of criminal charges including three charges of driving while intoxicated.

After each conviction he was extradited to Mexico. That never kept him from illegally crossing the border back into the United States.

“Every time you commit that offense the range of punishment gets higher and higher, but that's not enough to deter some people who really want to be here no matter what. And so if the punishment doesn't deter them, I don't know what will,” said Esparza.

Coria-Gonzalez is now considered an ICE enforcement priority.

Police believe there may be more victims that are afraid to come forward. They encourage them and anyone with information about these crimes to call the Austin Police Department.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...-was-deported/

by BOB PRICE
10 Sep 2016

The man now accused in a series of rapes and assaults of women in Austin, Texas, was free on the streets after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio declined to prosecute him for illegal re-entry after his fourth deportation.

Breitbart Texas learned on Friday that The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas was asked by agents in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) to prosecute Nicondemo Coria-Gonzales for illegal re-entry to the U.S. after having previously deported four times. Coria-Gonzales had amassed a criminal record that included three convictions of Driving While Intoxicated.

Breitbart Texas spoke on Friday with former Deputy Assistant Secretary/Deputy Director of ICE Alonzo Peña who confirmed that ICE agents requested the prosecution of Coria-Gonzales which would have put him in prison instead of his immediate re-deportation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined prosecution leaving ERO agents with no choice but to deport the three-time criminal alien.

Coria-Gonzales was deported for the fifth time in July 2015 and returned shortly thereafter to begin his crime spree against women in Austin.

Peña expressed frustration with the open border that allows deported criminals to return at will. He said the Coria-Gonzales case shows “just how easy it is to come back across the border. People can move across as freely as they want. That is what really troubles me.” Director Peña currently serves as president and founder of DMEP Strategic Consultants, and now provides security services to companies and governments in Mexico and Central America.

Breitbart Texas reached out to U.S. Attorney Richard Drubin, Jr., to find out why this prosecution was declined. “In July 2015, this office declined to file charges against Coria-Gonzalez for illegal reentry,” Durbin confirmed in a written response to Breitbart Texas’ questions. “Based on the information presented regarding his criminal history at the time, which was incomplete, the office determined that removing him promptly from the United States was the preferable to prosecuting him to secure a relatively short prison sentence.”

“ICE in fact removed him within three days,” Durban stated. “We learned additional information about the defendant’s criminal history for the first time today. The decision not to prosecute him at the time was based on an evaluation of the information presented at the time.”

Director Peña responded that “ICE did its job.” He said sources within the agency said the DOJ was presented a complete history when ICE asked for prosecution. “If they needed or wanted more information, they would ask for it,” Peña concluded.

Unfortunately, the decision not to prosecute the man who had been convicted of crimes in Texas at least three times and had been deported from the U.S. four times left the man free on the streets of Mexico to quickly return and carry out his crimes of rage against women in Austin.

The man now stands accused of attacking and sexually assaulting at least 10 women in northeast Austin. Some of the incidents date back to December 2015, a time following several deportations of this alleged criminal.

His routine was to pick up women by offering them a ride–or to pick up prostitutes. At least half of the victims were reported to be sex workers, Austin police officials told KXAN.

In July, Coria-Gonzales picked up a 68-year-old woman at a bus stop to “take her to his garden.” The woman, who uses a walking cane, accepted the ride from the man who then drove her to a dirt road where he reportedly beat her and sexually assaulted her.

In another case, Coria-Gonzales attempted to set a woman on fire after taking her to a secluded road. She said she thought she would soon be dead when he brought out a gas can. The woman was reported to be a prostitute and did not immediately report the crime for fear of being charged as such. He reportedly did not try to have sex with her.

Other victims range from age 30 to 60.

Coria-Gonzales sits in the Travis County jail and is being held without bond. ICE officials have issued an immigration detainer.

In 2015, U.S. Border Patrol agent Hector Garza testified before the Texas Senate Subcommittee on Border Security in his role at president of the National Border Patrol Council, Locas 2455. Garza told the Senators that the federal government has some of the “most restrictive prosecutorial guidelines for smuggling cases.” He said that because of this, many cases of human smuggling are not prosecuted. He said these kinds of guidelines also establish prosecutorial discretion for prosecution cases of illegal re-entry by illegal aliens.

Breitbart Texas asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office about these thresholds and if that played a factor in the decision not to prosecute Coria-Gonzales. Spokesman Daryl Fields responded “we do not discuss our prosecutorial guidelines or decision-making process.”

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/...serial-rapist/

OMG! why are these pieces of s..t in this country? My gov't has failed me big time.

BY JOE PERTICONE
7 HOURS AGO

The chairmen of both the House and Senate's respective judiciary committees authored a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to probe how an undocumented immigrant managed to commit six felonies despite being deported several times.

Monday, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) requested, in a letter to Johnson, information about Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales, who was recently charged with six felonies including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated sexual assault, and aggravated kidnapping.

Goodlatte and Grassley requested that Johnson provide answers to the following questions by September 21st:

1. The alien registration number for Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales, his complete alien file (A-file), including any temporary files, working files, or Service Center files, and all documents and items contained in them, all documents generated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or in its possession about him, whether currently in written or electronic form, including, but not limited to, the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Executive Summary, criminal history and immigration summaries, detainers or requests for notification, I-213(s), and Notice(s) to Appear or other charging documents created to seek his removal from the United States.

2. Please identify and explain each and every encounter that DHS or any of its agencies has had with Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales, including the date of the encounter, whether the encounter resulted in detention or the issuance of a detainer or request for notification, whether the encounter resulted in the initiation of removal proceedings or reinstatement of a prior removal order against him, and the current status of those removal proceedings or reinstatement.

3. Please identify each and every date on which Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales was arrested by a law enforcement agency in the United States, including criminal and civil arrests, the nature of the charges, the jurisdictions where the arrests occurred, the dispositions of the charges, the dates on which he was released from the custody of the law enforcement agencies, and the reasons for the release.

4. If a local law enforcement agency declines to honor a detainer or notify ICE regarding Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales, what action will DHS take to ensure that he is not released from custody and allowed to reoffend?

5. Did Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales ever apply for any immigration benefit, including deferred action? If so, was any application approved? Please provide copies of any applications that Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales may have submitted, whether or not adjudicated.

6. Is Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales a member of, or associated with any criminal gang? Please explain.

7. If Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales had been encountered by DHS enforcement officials prior to his recent arrest for sexual assault, would he have met the requirements to be considered a priority for removal under the Administration’s Priority Enforcement Program? If so, please provide the exact reason for such consideration. If not, why not?

8. Have any victims associated with the crimes allegedly committed by Nicodemo Coria-Gonzales been contacted by officials at ICE? Please provide details.

The Senate voted down a series of bills to curb "sanctuary city" policies earlier this year. However, the leaders of both chambers' judiciary committees are still focused on the effects of the various problems surrounding unauthorized immigration.

http://ijr.com/2016/09/691945-judici...serial-rapist/