Thread: Whose Mom must Die before our laws are enforced?

Family searches for answers
'Whose mom is it going to take to make a difference?

Lisa Hoppenjans, Staff Writer
HILLSBOROUGH - Isael Medrano wasn't supposed to be on the road.
But on Jan. 21, according to the state Highway Patrol, Medrano was driving drunk on N.C. 86 when he swerved into the oncoming lane and hit Hester "Faye" Coleman as she drove home from a dinner celebrating her birthday the next week.

The collision killed the 62-year-old grandmother instantly.

Her daughters, Stacy Koon and Jill Woody, can't understand why Medrano, 28, a Salvadoran immigrant who had twice entered the country illegally, wasn't deported after pleading guilty to a DWI less than three weeks earlier.

"I felt like her country, they failed my mom, like they had a hand in her death," Koon said. "Had they done their job, he wouldn't have been here to do it.

"Whose mom is it going to take to make a difference?"

The issue has been gaining attention statewide.

Hispanics make up about 7 percent of the state's population but accounted for nearly 19 percent of the charges of driving while impaired last fiscal year, according to the state's Administrative Office of the Courts. There's no way to tell how many of those charged might be illegal immigrants, but about half of the state's 600,000 Hispanic residents are thought to be here illegally.

Last July, Gaston County teacher Scott Gardner was killed by an illegal immigrant who had four previous impaired driving convictions and had been returned to his native Mexico twice.

When Ramiro Gallegos pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in February, the judge blamed Gardner's death in part on the failures of the legal and immigration system.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte has proposed a law bearing Gardner's name that would require deporting any illegal immigrant convicted of driving while impaired.

Medrano's legal status at the time of the accident is murky.

According to Tom O'Connell, resident agent in charge of the Cary office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Medrano entered the country illegally in 2001 but received temporary protected status because earthquakes had devastated parts of his native El Salvador.

About a year later, he was caught illegally crossing into Texas. He didn't tell officials he had protected status, so a new immigration file was mistakenly started, O'Connell said. Medrano was ordered deported after he didn't show up for court hearings.

The judge didn't know about Medrano's protected status, and it's not clear whether that or the deportation order determines his current status here.

"He didn't really come up on the radar screen because he wasn't an aggravated felon," O'Connell said. "We have such greater priorities, like the national security stuff, and the guys who have been convicted of felonies like rape, robbery, murder and everything else. We need to get to those people first."

Two things helped Medrano skirt possible deportation after he was arrested in January 2005 on charges of driving while impaired, hit and run, reckless driving, and damage to public property.

First, he reached an agreement to plead guilty to just one of the charges -- all misdemeanors. Had he been convicted of two misdemeanors, he would have voided his protected status.

Second, no court officials contacted immigration. If they had and Medrano had been convicted of two of the charges, instead of being allowed to plead guilty to one, he likely would have been deported, O'Connell said. That doesn't happen in most drunken driving cases, he said, but the previous deportation order makes this one different.

Local district attorneys don't routinely check defendants' immigration status, and federal agents don't have the manpower to track every suspected illegal immigrant charged with a crime.

Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall said his office checks immigration status in serious felonies or when attorneys have been notified the defendant may be here illegally.

Last year, local law enforcement officials in North Carolina made 2,877 inquiries to the Law Enforcement Support Center, a national center that tracks information on immigrant status, resulting in 195 detainers being placed on individuals.

But the center's database includes only illegal immigrants after they have had a run-in with the law, said Jeff Jordan, a Charlotte-based assistant special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Coleman's daughters said the system lacks accountability.

"They pass the ball back and forth," Koon began.

"And they dropped it," Woody finished.

Medrano is scheduled to appear in court today on involuntary manslaughter and other charges related to Coleman's death.

On Monday night, Coleman's family and friends held a vigil outside the Hillsborough courthouse.

"Eventually, we know we're going to have to forgive him because we don't want him in our lives forever," Koon said. "However, we do not want this to happen to anyone else."

Staff writer Lisa Hoppenjans can be reached at 932-2014 or lisa.hoppenjans@newsobserver.com.

http://www.newsobserver.com/161/story/432466.html

I just got word in my e-mail. They only gave Medrano 3 years today in court

W

This is dispicable....

Just another perfect example of how callous and uncaring our government is to average Americans.

Pinto Bean

That's the problem, PintoBean. Somehow we've allowed the citizens of our country to be treated as "worthless", and this has to stop.

We cannot help others if we cannot even take care of our own people. We are becoming the blind leading the blind. Or should I say the blind being lead by the blind.

This is sad..it is disheartening..it is sad. BUT IT AIN'T anything new. It's our stupid government that does nothing. I live in Middle Tennessee and have seen so much in the last two years that most of you would be shocked or drop in tears.


I wrote a letter to Bush requesting to reimburse victims and their families. Of course the party line is that these are ALL good people. You know what? Some of them are and some of them aren't.

When I joined the military I knew I was putting my life up for my country. I WILL DO IT AGAIN. For the sake of mankind, I WILL DO IT AGAIN.

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/432675.html

Guilty plea nets driver four years
Deportation planned afterward for man who twice entered the U.S. illegally

Lisa Hoppenjans, Staff Writer

HILLSBOROUGH - A man who killed a Hillsborough woman in a drunken-driving crash will spend at least four years and three months in prison.

Isael Medrano, 28, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court to involuntary manslaughter, felony hit and run, and driving while impaired in the death of Hester "Faye" Coleman. Coleman, 62, was a program assistant at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education.

Superior Court Judge Carl Fox gave Medrano the maximum sentence on each count.

Once he serves his sentence, he will be turned over to federal authorities, who plan to deport him to his native El Salvador, said David Wicker, his attorney.

"I want the family of the deceased to please forgive me because this is something I never wanted to do," Medrano said through an interpreter. "That is all."

Medrano, who was working as a cook at the time of the wreck, has a wife and a 3-year-old child who are U.S. citizens, Wicker said.

He was driving Jan. 21 on N.C. 86 near Phoebe Drive when he pulled into the oncoming lane as cars slowed down in front of him.

He hit Coleman head-on, killing her instantly, then ran away, leaving behind an injured passenger in his car. When police found him four hours later, his blood alcohol content was 0.09, above the 0.08 legal limit.

During testimony on the sentencing, Stacy Koon, Coleman's daughter, displayed her mother's photograph, blown up to the size of a small poster. She stood on the witness stand, glared at Medrano and held the photo out.

"This is my mom," she said. "Do you see her? Does everyone see her?"

Medrano kept his head down as the interpreter whispered the translation in his ear. Koon said he glanced up quickly once.

Koon, 33, described her mom, a woman who loved British comedies, travel and her Pekingese, Shadow. She left behind Koon and another daughter, Jill Woody, 28, who is pregnant with Coleman's fourth grandchild.

"My [7-year-old] son used the word 'hate' for the first time ever," Koon said through tears. "He said, 'Mom, I hate the man that killed my Grandma Faye Faye.'

"Tell me how I'm supposed to explain to him forgiveness when I can't do it myself?" she said.

Koon also criticized immigration policies that she said contributed to her mother's death.

Immigration status

Medrano twice entered the country illegally and had been ordered deported after failing to show up at a federal court hearing.

But he also had been granted temporary protected status allowing him to stay in the country because of devastating earthquakes in El Salvador. Immigration officials mistakenly created two files on Medrano, which led to conflicting records of his legal status.

He was also able to remain in the country after pleading guilty to a previous DWI charge less than three weeks before Coleman's death.

Koon said that immigration policies and penalties for illegal immigrants who drive drunk should be tightened.

"He should be a frightened man," she said, "not because of me but because of the laws that are going to be changed because of me."

Staff writer Lisa Hoppenjans can be reached at 932-2014 or lisa.hoppenjans@newsobserver.com.

Quote:
Once he serves his sentence, he will be turned over to federal authorities, who plan to deport him to his native El Salvador, said David Wicker, his attorney.
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No they wont. Once he serves his sentence, he will be 'told' to go home, but he will be right back on the street. It seems our 'federal authorities' have more important things to worry about than deporting illegals.

What's wrong with you people? What's to be upset about? It was just a mere commoner killed by that illegal.

Get a grip. It's not as if a famous sport star, movie star or big-name entertainer was killed.

It would have been a real injustice if a federal-level politician was killed or a CEO of a BIG corporation.

When are you commoners going to quit your idiotic griping and finally realize you are nothing. Nothing!!!!!!

You have no power. Your wealth is not enough to influence anything. You are merely a serf, a piece of living machinery to be used to create profit for your betters. There is an unending flow of labor entering the USA so your pitiful contribution means nothing.

Obey your betters. Follow those appointed to lead you. Accept what others have decided what is best for you.

You are nothing. A simple statistic. A number to be counted when taxes are due. A number to be erased when you pass on.

Accept your position at the bottom of the pile you whining scum.

/scarcasm mode off

Read Stacy's quote at the end.

She is a real fighter. She is not going away. I've been working with her and her family on this.

Stacy sees where the system failed her and her family and she is going to fight hard for change.

W

Both stories added to the homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article-1178-thread-1-0.html