Thread: murder trial exposed ethnic tension, shadow world of illegal

Last Updated: 11:04 am | Thursday, May 31, 2007
Warren County murder trial exposed ethnic tension, shadow world of illegal aliens
BY PETER BRONSON | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The first signal that the Mota brothers' murder trial would be unlike any other in Warren County came during the first long day of jury selection.

A man who was hard of hearing said he was too distracted by the Motas' translator, whose soft play-by-play in Spanish hovered in the background like someone talking in a theater.

A woman wanted to know what constitutional rights the defendants had. "If I were in another country, I would want to be treated fairly," she said. She was dismissed too.

And an elderly gentleman wearing a "Git-R-Done" hat asked to be disqualified. "I have a bad back, and, well," he said after a pause, "I'm prejudiced."

When he blamed that on being "born and raised in Kentucky," most of the waiting jury pool chuckled, and even Judge James Heath had to smile at the unvarnished candor. Only the Mota brothers, Jose and Humberto, sat blank-faced and silent. "Mexicans in a white society," one of their lawyers said later.

They're also illegals, police said. They literally do not belong in Warren County, Ohio. But Warren County is paying the bills.

Since they were arrested Aug. 26 and accused of murdering Kevin Barnhill, 27, who was stabbed to death behind the Mason Pub, they have been jailed at a cost of $60 per day, said Sheriff Tom Ariss. By the time they went on trial, the bill was more than $33,000.

That doesn't include the enormous cost of the investigation, court costs, translators, pulling 70 people out of work to wait all day in a jury pool - or the incalculable cost of Barnhill's life.

Like all murder trials, this one was tedious, dramatic, intense, puzzling and profoundly sad. The victim's family wept softly as autopsy photos were displayed on a screen. A barmaid broke into tears as she recalled Barnhill screaming "help me" as he was chased by four men and stabbed six times.

Barnhill's drinking buddy, Josh Morel, told a sorry tale of his "fuzzy" recollection of bar-hopping, drinking too many shots and beers, then stumbling into a drunken closing-time fight with the Motas and other Mexican roofers outside the bar.

Morel threw the first punch. But it was Barnhill, described by witnesses as "very polite," who bled to death in a dark parking lot while a Mason cop held his hand and begged him, "Stay with us, Kevin."

No matter how many times such heartbreaking stories are told in court, they still seem hard to believe. So that's how murder happens? Too many drinks. A racial insult. A punch. A knife. And in less time than it takes to order a rum and coke, one young man is dead and a dozen lives are permanently scarred.

All murder trials are mysteries. This one was tough for the jury. A tracking dog led police to a house on Tylersville Road where the Motas and six other illegals lived near the pub. Detectives found a blood-stained shirt stuffed in a sump pump. Witnesses saw Humberto among the group that chased Barnhill behind the bar. But they never found the knife. And another illegal who lived with the Motas, Enrique Torres, could have stabbed Barnhill - but vanished by the time police returned to make arrests.

Jose, 40, was in front of the bar, fighting with Morel when Barnhill was stabbed. He was acquitted, and will be deported or could be sent to federal prison. Humberto, 31, was convicted of complicity to murder and sentenced to 15 years to life. Ring up another $340,000 for Ohio prison costs.

This case revealed the hidden dangers of illegal immigration, Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel said. "The rest of us have a paper trail," she said. But Torres can slip into a new identity and disappear into the shadow world of 12 million illegals. "He could be anywhere," Hutzel said.

Illegals don't have privileges of citizenship such as voting and Social Security numbers, but they do have all the rights of our Constitution in court, Heath pointed out. "That's what all the debate is about at the federal level," he said during a break.

Building walls on the border may hold back the flood, but it's too late to save Kevin Barnhill. Amnesty that rewards illegals is an insult to Barnhill and all the crime victims like him. But both Motas had records, so they might have been deported if background checks of illegals were required.

We all pay for illegal immigraton - some more than others. If we don't do something to track, register and sort out illegals in the shadow world, trials like the Motas' will not be so unusual anymore.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 513-768-8301.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... /1009/EDIT

they should all be put in federal prison.

Oh, but these low-skilled workers are just here to work, doing those jobs Americans won't do.

When is our government going to wake up! Many of these foreign nationals are dangerous. In the past 8 years, nearly 1 million Amercan citizens have fallen victim to the crimes of illegal immigrants in this country.

Last year, I spent a good amount of time writing letters to all our elected officials, and posting letters to the editors in papers on this very subject. I was trying to make people aware that the cost of cheap labor, is not so cheap after all.

You can see how far it got. Our government still insist we need these people.