Thread: Man (illegal) charged with killing three at after-hours club

i have thought about this case everyday for alomst a year now. I am as angry now as ive ever been. words cant express how i feel about the Mexican government sticking their noses where they dont belong. They didnt care about him until he killed three people. To this day it sickens me.

AltoidSteph , and Jazznutts, welcome to both of you to ALIPAC. I am sorry for your loses, I also know what losing someone close to you can do to your emotions. I hope that both of you will put your frustrations to work by joining us here at ALIPAC in our fight against the injustices that goes on and on such as the one that happened to your friends. I know that anger can turn inwards and become depression, don't let that happen to you, here you can vent your frustrations and anger into a constructive path and know that what you do here at ALIPAC by becoming an ALIPAC activist and helping us to stop this invasion of our country by the illegals. If our country was enforcing its own laws this murder of your friends wold not have happened, such a waste of life! When you have time, read some of the ALIPAC stories in their archives, be prepared though, to become even more angry with what you learn here, it can be overwhelming learning to what extent our government and our elected officials are betraying us, we are here to help you though, to stay on the right path to doing something real to fight against this. I think you will find it gratifying to learn that there is something "you" can really do to change this. I say to both of you, use this anger you feel, hang on to it and put it to good work, don't let it control you, you control it and bring about something good from something evil in the name of Steve and the others who were lost, make their lives count and be important and vital to bringing the change to our country that is so needed and will only happen because of people like you who's lives have been touched in such an evil way as this by people who disrespect us and our country by being here illegaly. Tell all your mutual friends about ALIPAC and how they can personally help to bring good out of this. A good place to start might be reading the story about the 2 border patrol agents who are being sent to prison by their governments for doing their jobs on the border, there you can clearly see how our government is betraying its own citizens in the name of the illegals, be sure and tune in to Lou Dobbs whenever you can as he is a hero to our cause, most every episode has something about the Illegal invasion going on. God Bless you both!

Well said, nitty!!

I agree.

http://www.pennlive.com

Jury selection to start in 3 nightclub slayings
Sunday, August 20, 2006
From staff and wire reports
CARLISLE - Starting tomorrow, some Cumberland County residents will get the chance to play a role in a murder trial that has become something of an international incident.

They will be chosen to sit on a jury for the trial of Miguel Padilla, an illegal Mexican immigrant charged with killing three men at an Altoona nightclub last year.

The jury will be chosen in Cumberland County due to publicity in Blair County. Cumberland officials said jury selection is expected to last several days.

The trial of Padilla, said by immigration authorities to have been in the country illegally since he was about 9, will begin in September. He could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

The case has international ramifications because the state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Mexican government's request to delay Padilla's trial

Tempe, Ariz., attorney Michael O'Connor, representing the Mexican government, had voiced concern that Padilla was jailed without a lawyer for seven weeks after the Aug. 28 shooting.

O'Connor did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the ruling.

Blair County officials have said they waited to appoint an attorney only because they thought Mexican officials wanted input on the selection. When they learned that Mexican officials merely wanted to make sure that Padilla had an attorney, they appointed a public defender, they said.

Padilla is accused of killing club owner Alfred Mignogna, 61; bouncer Fred Rickabaugh Sr., 58; and patron Stephen Heiss, 28, outside the United Veterans Association Club in Altoona.

Padilla's public defender, Donald Speice, said he is prepared for trial. Speice has denied the Mexican government's allegations that Padilla has not been represented properly.

http://www.altoonamirror.com/News/artic ... cleID=4178

Tuesday, August 22, 2006 — Time: 2:00:57 AM EST

Possible jurors in Padilla trial fill out surveys

For the Record: See previous filings in the Miguel Padilla case by clicking here.

By Phil Ray, pray@altoonamirror.com

CARLISLE — The national debate over illegal aliens was on the mind of the judge selecting a jury Monday in Cumberland County for the Miguel A. Padilla triple homicide case.

Padilla, 27, who came to the Gallitzin area with his family from Mexico as a young boy, never was naturalized.

One of the charges brought against him a year ago when he was arrested for the murders of three Altoona men is possession of a gun by an illegal alien.

Judge Hiram A. Carpenter ruled that the illegal alien status is so prejudicial that he removed the gun charge from the rest of the case. Discussion of Padilla’s immigration status will be permitted in the case only if there is a death-penalty phase.

Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio asked Carpenter to reconsider his ruling, but the judge issued an opinion Friday stating, “In a case where first-degree murder is charged and the death penalty is sought, severance of the gun charge to a later point in time is a small price to pay where there is even a possibility of prejudice to the defendant if his illegal status is before the jury during the guilty phase.”

About 140 Cumberland County residents called as potential jurors were asked to fill out a 79-question survey that will be used by lawyers during the selection process, which begins today.

The questionnaire refers to Padilla as a person of “Mexican descent.”

The judge asked the jurors: “Could you give an individual of Mexican descent or nationality the same fair trial you would give an individual without a consideration of his nationality or place of birth?”

Carpenter said the trial will not last long. It will begin Sept. 6 and should be completed by Sept. 16.

Jurors will be sequestered in a Blair County hotel but will be taken home to Carlisle for the Sept. 8-9 weekend.

Carpenter is hoping a jury will be selected by Friday evening, but if not, prospective jurors were told to report to the courthouse Monday.

Padilla is charged with fatally shooting Alfred Mignogna, owner of the United Veterans Association; Fredrick Rickabaugh Sr., a club employee; and Stephen Heiss, a club patron, early Aug. 28, 2005, after Padilla, a friend and the friend’s mother were refused admission to the after-hours club.

Defense attorneys, Public Defender Donald E. Speice and Ed Blanarik, have asked that incriminating evidence — including the gun allegedly used to kill the men, a briefcase containing $19,000 and Padilla’s driver’s license found by a police officer not far from where he was arrested — be excluded from the trial.

The defense also wants any reference to Padilla’s history of violence excluded from trial, including mention of domestic violence, a criminal record and scheduled testimony from an individual who said Padilla threatened him with a gun.

Carpenter must hold a hearing on these requests.

Of the 140 prospective jurors, 22 asked to be released from jury duty because of ‘‘duress.’’

Many said they had vacations already planned for the two weeks of the trial. Carpenter said forcing them to miss their vacations to serve would create resentment.

Others were excused for illness among family members.

Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.

http://www.altoonamirror.com/News/artic ... cleID=4292

One year later: Long legal battle likely in Padilla case


n For the Record: To view documents from the Miguel Padilla case, click here.
http://www.altoonamirror.com/ForTheReco ... lla008.pdf

http://www.altoonamirror.com/ForTheReco ... adilla.pdf

By Kay Stephens, kstephens@altoonamirror.com

A year ago Monday, in the early morning hours outside an Altoona social club, three men were shot and killed.

A year from now, if accused gunman Miguel Padilla is convicted at the end of a jury trial scheduled to start next week in Hollidaysburg, the case likely will move into a lengthy appeal process, especially if the jury chooses death over life in prison.

“When it’s a capital case ... the Mexican government will do what they can to appeal,” said Kent Scheidegger, director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, Calif. “The Mexican government is very anti-capital punishment. I can’t say the same for the Mexican people.”

Scheidegger’s organization tracks and offers comments on court cases, many involving international issues on appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In one murder case involving a Mexican national, the legal process began with a conviction and a death sentence, followed by an appeal process that stretched over 12 years to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ernesto Medellin was born in Mexico but grew up in Texas. In 1993, he and two others were accused of raping and strangling two girls outside Houston.

Padilla, 26, is accused of gunning down United Veterans Association owner Alfred Mignogna, employee Fredrick Rickabaugh Sr. and club patron Stephen M. Heiss.

Like Medellin, Padilla was born in Mexico and came with his family to the United States. Padilla grew up in Cambria County and graduated from Penn Cambria High School.

Because Padilla is a Mexican national, his case has drawn interest and protests from the Mexican government, which sought to halt the trial while awaiting a review of legal issues before the state Supreme Court.

Mexico’s representatives complained that Padilla was not provided legal representation immediately, was not permitted to attend status conferences and has not been given enough money to pay expert witnesses.

Blair County Judge Hiram Carpenter says those and other international legal issues will be debated during appeal of any conviction.

Scheidegger said he believes Mexico loses more appeal issues than it wins, but it generally files appeals in capital cases, and the process is slow.

“These appeal cases could be done in five or six years, and they are in Virginia, particularly in those cases where there is no question of guilt,” he said.

In other states where issues go back and forth between state and federal courts, the process languishes.

In the Medellin case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence. Medellin still is on death row. Scheidegger said some legal issues remain with the Texas state court.

The appeal issues in the Medellin case included a claim that Houston authorities didn’t tell him that he had the right to notify the Mexican government of his arrest.

The Mexican consulate learned of Medellin’s status when he wrote to them from death row.

That appeal was dismissed partly because the courts ruled that the failure to notify had no effect on Medellin’s conviction or sentence.

In Padilla’s case, the Mexican consulate in Philadelphia is aware of Padilla’s charges.

But they have no role in the county jury trial, Carpenter has ruled.

Another related post-trial issue likely to surface in the Padilla case, if the jury sentences him to die, is Pennsylvania’s death row roster.

The state has 223 men and women on death row, including some that have been there for more than 20 years. Because of the appeal process, the state has not executed an inmate since 1999.

It has executed only three people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.

I jsut want to thank everyone for their continued support over the last year. Today, please keep Steve, Al, and Freddy in your thoughts as this day will be thoughest day for anyone whose life was touched by this event. Thank you again.

You got it AltoidSteph. I do not personally know any of these people obviously but I could not be much more angrier about the situation if they were a close friend or a relative. If our government enforced the immigration laws this would never have happened. We have enough of our own crime without importing it. I know this is going to be a stressful time but hope the trial goes smoothly and they get a conviction. Unfortunately that will never make up for the tragic loss of life.

The Mexico government cesspool of scum seems to go to no ends in trying to protect their low-life swill. This sickens me. I hope they fry this piece of crap.

There is a video available at the article link.

http://www.wjactv.com/news/9756034/detail.html

Triple-Murder Trial Exceeds Blair County Budget

POSTED: 1:45 pm EDT August 29, 2006
UPDATED: 1:52 pm EDT August 29, 2006

The trial of accused killer Miguel Padilla is expected to cost Blair County more than what was laid out in the budget.

Padilla is accused of shooting three men outside the UVA Club in Altoona last August. His trial is set to begin next Wednesday.

County commissioners said judges are doing their best to keep the costs in line, but added security is what will take the county beyond what this year's budget accounted for.

"It's just an unbelievable expense and if the Mexican government wants to get involved, they ought to start paying the bills. The American people are going to have to start to pay to prosecute this guy," said Blair County Commissioner John Eichelberger.

The Blair County sheriff said threats against Padilla have been made, citing the need for extra security. He said adding deputies to the courtroom is just one of those added costs.