Thread: Benton County : Illegal alien arrested in ’04 hit, run

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/173824/

Benton County : Illegal alien arrested in ’04 hit, run
BY SHARON C. FITZGERALD

Posted on Thursday, November 23, 2006

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/173824/


Federal agents acting on a tip arrested an illegal alien wanted on a manslaughter charge in a 2004 fatal hit-andrun accident in Benton County, a sheriff’s official said Wednesday.

Lazardo Lobaton, 25, was arrested Monday in Decatur, Ala., in connection with the July 18, 2004, death of Brandon Haley, according to a news release from the Benton County sheriff’s office.

Lobaton, who was captured while living with other illegal immigrants in Alabama, is believed to have left Northwest Arkansas for Mexico after the hit-and-run, the news release said.

Investigators believe he returned to the United States six months later and has been living throughout the country.

“We’ve had information that he’s been in various locations, but the Alabama connection was the best lead we’ve had,” Mark Spellman, supervisory deputy with the U. S. Marshals Service in Fort Smith, said Wednesday.

Lobaton was being held Wednesday in the Morgan County jail in Decatur on a criminal charge of manslaughter, jail officials said.

Greg Hines, a Benton County sheriff’s investigator, traveled to Decatur on Tuesday to positively identify Lobaton.

“We didn’t want to release the information until we were absolutely sure it was him,” Benton County sheriff’s deputy Doug Gay said.

Haley, 31, was killed as he rode his bicycle with a friend along Old Highway 68 east of Siloam Springs about 6 a. m. on July 18, 2004.

The friend, who was not injured, saw the truck and warned Haley, reports said.

Lobaton and another man were returning from a liquor store in Oklahoma after drinking alcohol all night when the accident occurred, Gay said.

The men then drove the truck, which they borrowed from friends, to Rogers and “staged an accident scene,” Gay said.

Gay didn’t know if anyone else was arrested in the case.

“Lobaton was the one we were most interested in,” Gay said.

Sheriff’s investigators have been searching for Lobaton and asked the U. S. Marshals Service for assistance. Federal agents thought Lobaton had been arrested on at least two other occasions, but it turned out not to be him, Gay said.

A U. S. marshal working the case received a tip several weeks ago that Lobaton was working in construction in Decatur and living in a house with other illegal aliens, Spellman said. He was arrested during a joint operation with the U. S. Marshals Service and U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Additional details about the arrest were not available Wednesday. Bruce Dunn, president of the Tyson Cycling Team with which Haley rode, said Wednesday the arrest would hopefully lead to some answers as to what happened that morning. Team members who knew Haley still wear patches on their jerseys to honor him, Dunn said. “As time passes and wounds heal you really wonder if this wasn’t a horrible accident,” Dunn said. “No one wins in this.”

A U. S. marshal working the case received a tip several weeks ago that Lobaton was working in construction in Decatur and living in a house with other illegal aliens, Spellman said.

They Hazelton type Illegal Immigration Relief Act aka IIRA would assist in hindering such illegal aliens from coming to or living in American.

Dixie

Open border is open season on American lives.