Mexico

The man accused of gunning down a 32-year-old Pleasanton woman while she was out strolling San Francisco's Embarcadero with her father was in a Bay Area jail less than four months ago and should have been turned over to federal immigration officials upon his release, instead of being set free, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

But that's not the way the San Francisco County Sheriff's Legal Counsel Freya Horne sees it. In an interview Friday with NBC Bay Area, she said the city and county of San Francisco are sanctuaries for immigrants, and they do not turn over undocumented people – if they don't have active warrants out for them – simply because immigration officials want them to.

Meanwhile, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said Francisco Sanchez, who was arrested following the Wednesday evening shooting of Kathryn Steidle, along Pier 14 has "made an admission" with regards to the seemingly random death in the middle of a populated part of town....

Sanchez, who law enforcement say is either 45 or 46 and has about a dozen aliases, was taken into custody after witnesses described him to police. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he is an undocumented immigrant with a long criminal history who has previously been deported to Mexico five times, the last time in 2008...

Kice told NBC Bay Area on Friday that Sanchez should have been returned to her agency's custody, because he had a "detainer" on his status in jail.
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Federal records show Sanchez has seven prior felony convictions, four of which were for drug charges. Records indicate his convictions took place in states including Texas, Oregon and Arizona. And a law enforcement source said the case that landed Sanchez in San Francisco jail most recently was for a marijuana case that was about 20 years old.

Police have described the shooting as random, as she was not robbed and never even exchanged words with the man who killed her. Kathryn Steinle's father, Jim Steinle, said she was taken in the prime of her life. "She had so much to live for and died so senselessly,” he said Thursday. “It’s terrible.”...

San Francisco Police Officer Grace Gatpandan Gatpandan added that San Francisco is a "sanctuary city, so we do not hand over people to ICE." She also said that the police are "not responsible" for Sanchez once he is booked into county jail, "meaning we do not have control over his release."

Sanctuary cities, which are dotted throughout the United States, don't inquire about an immigrant's status for the federal government. It has no legal meaning, but is a de facto practice of a particular city.

San Francisco's particular ordinance is called the "Due Process Ordinance for All on Civil Immigration Detainers." Read more about Accused San Francisco Pier Shooter Should Have Been Deported: Immigration Officials

A Marion County Circuit Court judge sentenced a man to 93 years in prison after the man was convicted, for the second time, of rape and child sex abuse.

Juan de Dios Cruz-Rojas, 43, was initially convicted of rape and sex abuse of two female victims — both known to him — in 2011. The incidents occurred over the course of several years starting in 2006. The case regarding one of the victims was appealed because of a change in the law by the Oregon Supreme Court, said Judge Dennis Graves.

Cruz-Rojas was convicted again last week by a jury on four counts of first-degree rape, four counts of first-degree sex abuse, three counts of fourth-degree assault and one count of sodomy. He was sentenced to a total of 1,124 months – 93 years, 8 months.

And those 93-plus years will be served after he finishes serving 53 years for rape and sexual abuse of a second victim, according to Marion County Deputy District Attorney Matt Kemmy.

The victim spoke before the court at the hearing Monday. She said she hopes the defendant thinks of the day that she has to tell her child what happened to her.

"I hope he leaves us alone," she said.

Kemmy recommended on behalf of the state that the court impose a total of 1,436 months, or about 120 years, in prison.

"Two women talked about the abuse they suffered at the hands of this monster," Kemmy said.

"I realize he's not going to live 120 more years and I don't care."

Cruz-Rojas' defense attorney, David Kuhns, said the state's recommended sentence would exceed those imposed on defendants convicted of homicide and, by several decades, the defendant's life expectancy.

Kuhns said that his client has been heavily employed as an inmate and he has been cooperative and appreciative throughout court proceedings. Two family members spoke in court in support of Cruz-Rojas, asking that the judge keep them in mind when he decides on the sentence.

Cruz-Rojas spoke in court through a Spanish interpreter. Referring to the victims, he said they were able to continue going to school and the crimes did not happen as they say they did.

"God is fair, and he will give to each person as they deserve," his interpreter said. "I'm not worried about prison. I will go back there calmly. I have a life there and I'm doing what I like."

Graves told the defendant that he listened carefully to every piece of evidence and testimony shared during the trial and asked for God's wisdom in deciding on what sentence would be appropriate.

"The evidence is overwhelming that you sexually abused those girls," he said.

Evidence included photos of bruising on one victim that matched one of his belt buckles, and DNA test results that showed he was the father of one of the victim's child.

"My job is to sentence you knowing you did these crimes to these children... yet sentence you in proportion to the constitution," Graves said.

The Department of Corrections did not have immediately available a record that compares the sentences for inmates convicted of similar crimes. However, Kemmy said this sentence was extremely lengthy due to the circumstances of his crimes.

Kemmy explained in an email that three of the rape charges accounted for 75 years and two of them occurred when the victim was 11 years old, which qualified for an enhanced penalty of 25 years under Jessica's Law. The law requires a minimum sentence of 25 years for first-time child sex offenders. The final rape charge occurred in the summer of 2011 after Ballot Measure 73 passed, which enhances a sentence to 25 years if the defendant has previous convictions for certain major felony sex crimes.
  Read more about Man convicted in appealed rape case sentenced to 93 years

A sex abuse defendant who was accused of masturbating during a pretrial court hearing will face deportation under the plea agreement he signed Wednesday.

Prosecutors said Roberto Hernandez-Fabian sexually touched a 13-year-old girl in a car in 2010. He was 26 at the time...

A Washington County jury that year found him guilty.... He was sentenced to six years and three months in prison.

But the case returned to Circuit Court after the Oregon Court of Appeals found that prosecutors had failed to give adequate notice of their intent to offer hearsay statements at trial...

While the girl on video described the sexual abuse she'd suffered, it appeared to the deputy that Fabian-Hernandez, now 31, was masturbating in the courtroom....

Judge Thomas Kohl, who'd been viewing the video at the time... recused himself and sent the case to be handled by a different judge and a different defense lawyer.

Defense attorney David Rich took the case, which resolved Wednesday with a plea agreement.... in which Hernandez-Fabian admitted to two counts of attempted first-degree sexual abuse. The agreement called for a sentence of nearly four years in prison but gave the defendant credit for time served.

Because Hernandez-Fabian has already served five years and two months, his lawyer said, he'll be released in this case, taken to immigration jail and eventually be deported to Mexico.
  Read more about Man accused of masturbating in court faces deportation after plea deal

Breitbart Texas has learned that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) helicopter was shot down or forced to initiate an emergency landing in Laredo, Texas due to receiving gunfire from the Mexican side of the border. The helicopter was interdicting a narcotics load and working alongside agents from the U.S. Border Patrol, who operate under the umbrella of the CBP. The helicopter was operating in the Laredo Sector of Texas, immediately across the border from the Los Zetas cartel headquarters of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

The helicopter was in U.S. airspace and participating in the interdiction of a narcotics load coming from Mexico into the United States.

A federal agent who spoke with Breitbart Texas on the condition of anonymity said, “U.S. Border Patrol agents were attempting to intercept a drug load. A law enforcement chopper was assisting Border Patrol agents. The chopper received gunfire from the Mexican side of the border. The chopper had to do an emergency landing due to the gunfire.”..

UPDATES:

The shooting occurred in an area known as La Bota Ranch, a subdivision of Laredo, Texas....

Another source close to the matter told Breitbart Texas that “at least five shots were fired from Mexico ...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released this statement to Breitbart Texas:

On June 5, 2015, at approximately 5:00pm during an operational flight near the Rio Grande River in Laredo, Texas, a US Customs and Border Patrol (USCBP) helicopter was struck several times by ground fire.  The rounds penetrated and damaged the aircraft, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.   The pilot sustained no injuries and no individuals on the ground were affected.   USCBP, FBI, Texas Rangers, Homeland Security Investigations and Laredo Police Department responded to the scene.  The FBI has initiated an investigation and will continue processing the crime scene with the Texas Rangers.  Since this is an ongoing matter, no further details will be provided at this time.  Read more about BREAKING: US CBP Chopper Down at Texas Border, Fired on from Mexico

A Medford man caught with a pound of meth during a traffic stop in April has been indicted on federal drug charges.

A federal grand jury Thursday indicted Miguel Navarro-Martinez on a charge of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Medford. Navarro-Martinez, 44, already faces state charges of possession, delivery and manufacture of methamphetamine and identity theft in Jackson County Circuit Court stemming from his April 3 arrest.

Navarro-Martinez was arrested after a state trooper pulled over the red Cadillac he was allegedly driving 20 miles over the speed limit on Interstate 5 near milepost 13 outside Ashland. According to a probable cause affidavit, Navarro-Martinez originally gave the trooper another man's drivers license and produced an insurance card with the name and address of a woman in Klamath Falls.

It turned out that the real owner of the driver's license had a warrant out of Florida on a cocaine possession charge, and Navarro-Martinez said he didn't know the last name of the woman who owned the car, the affidavit said. After noting a strong smell of soap in the vehicle, the trooper suspected Navarro-Martinez was trying to hide drugs in the car. A search of the car turned up a pound of meth in a box hidden under the driver's seat, the affidavit said.

Under questioning by troopers and an agent from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Navarro-Martinez allegedly confessed that he was being paid $700 to transport the drugs to Tacoma, Wash. Court records show he has a previous federal conviction for illegal re-entry after deportation in 1995.

Navarro-Martinez is being held in the Jackson County Jail on a federal hold. He's scheduled for a pretrial conference on the state charges May 11, court records show.
  Read more about Suspect in OSP meth stop will face federal charges

A 35-year-old man described by prosecutors as a lieutenant in a four-state heroin trafficking organization was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for helping supply the drug that killed a 21-year-old Keizer woman.

Sergio Quezada Lopez, dressed in a blue and pink Multnomah County jail uniform, apologized to the family of Laurin Putnam for her 2012 overdose death and to his children and their mother in Mexico for not being able to provide for them....

Quezada Lopez is the third of seven people convicted on federal charges to be sentenced in Putnam's death. His brother, 40-year-old Gerardo Chalke Lopez, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years in prison on the same charges: conspiracy to distribute heroin resulting in the death of another person and for illegal re-entry.

The brothers are required to together pay the Putnam family $1,670 in restitution.

They were prosecuted under the Len Bias law, named after a University of Maryland basketball player who died of a cocaine overdose in 1986. The law enables prosecutors to seek stiffer penalties against people involved in the distribution of a drug that leads to a fatal overdose.

Four days after Putnam was found dead in her Keizer apartment, authorities arrested at least half a dozen drug dealers ...

Putnam was a West Salem high school graduate whose addiction to painkillers from a back injury while playing softball eventually led to heroin use, prosecutors said.

Jose Aldana Soto, 33, was sentenced on April 8 to three years and 10 months in prison for his role in Putnam's death.

The remaining four defendants, Christopher Wood Jr., Rigoberto "Jose" Romo Gonzalez, Julian Hernandez Castillo and Carlos "Braulio" Acosta Mendoza, also have pleaded guilty to charges linked to her death. Their sentencings are set later this year.

Quezada Lopez has been deported to Mexico four times since 2000...

He had planned to permanently stay with his wife and two children when he returned to Mexico in 2009, but money troubles led to him come back across the border at his older brother's suggestion, according to a sentencing memo written by his attorney, Ryan Scott...

Scott had requested 10 years in prison and prosecutors asked for 17 years...

"I do sincerely wish that after you serve your time and repay your debt to society that you are able to turn your life around and lead a law-abiding life," Simon said.

After the hearing, Ron Putnam said he will return to court in May for the sentencing of the next defendant in his daughter's death.

"None of this is going to bring her back, but it's nice to see this coming to an end," he said.
  Read more about 3rd man sentenced in fatal overdose of Keizer woman, apologizes to her family

The death of Ron Putnam's daughter hits him just as hard today as when she died three years ago.

Four days after the April 2012 fatal heroin overdose of Laurin Putnam, authorities arrested at least half a dozen drug dealers suspected of being part of a heroin supply chain...

Seven men faced federal charges and another three were accused in Marion County Circuit Court. The state charges against the trio have been dismissed, court records show, and Tuesday marked the federal sentencing of the second of the seven remaining suspects.

The lengthy criminal proceedings have worn on the 21-year-old's family, Ron Putnam said....

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon sentenced Gerardo Chalke-Lopez, 40, to 18 years in prison Tuesday for conspiracy to distribute heroin resulting in the death of another person, and for illegal re-entry....

The federal prosecutions are under the Len Bias law, named after a University of Maryland basketball player who died of a cocaine overdose in 1986. The law enables prosecutors to seek stiffer penalties against people involved in the distribution of a drug that leads to a fatal overdose.

Jose Aldana Soto, 33, was sentenced April 8 to three years and 10 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin resulting in the death of another person. Sergio Quezada Lopez, Chalke-Lopez's younger brother, is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday.

Court records show Christopher Wood, 22; Rigoberto "Jose" Romo Gonzalez, 25; Julian Hernandez Castillo, 34; and Carlos "Braulio" Acosta Mendoza, 36, have all pleaded guilty to charges linked to Putnam's death...

Laurin Putnam was found dead in her apartment two days after she moved into it. Prosecutors said the West Salem High School graduate first started taking painkillers to help recover from an injury related to playing softball and her addiction to the medication later led to heroin use.

Chalke-Lopez ran a heroin trafficking operation that went through Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Nevada, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Bickers.  He has been the target of state and federal investigators for 10 years for drug-related offenses, she said.

Chalke-Lopez went by "La Loca," which means the crazy woman in Spanish, Bickers said. He has been deported to his native Mexico three times since 2006, a government's sentencing memo said. In that same year, he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin.

In 2010, Multnomah County Sheriff's investigators stopped Chalke-Lopez in a vehicle later determined to have more than a pound and a half of heroin hidden inside, but he was released before the drugs were found, the memo said.

Chalke-Lopez's brother, Quezada-Lopez, 35, was one of the half-dozen arrested since after Putnam's death. Chalke-Lopez was arrested three months later...

...Chalke-Lopez was recorded telling someone that he planned to cause harm to a person who cooperated with authorities against his younger sibling and referenced where the informant's family lived in Mexico, the memo said.

The possible danger Chalke-Lopez posed to those who aided investigators made him a huge threat, Bickers said.

The arrest of his brother and death of Putnam didn't deter the older sibling, according to Bickers. He continued working with another high-level heroin trafficker and others up until his arrest, where he was found with more than a pound of heroin.

The Putnam family is still learning how to deal with the loss of Laurin, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kemp Strickland. The 21-year-old's mother, Julie, who was also in court Tuesday, has struggled with anxiety, depression, alcohol and other issues brought on by the grief of her daughter's death...

Bickers recommended 18 years in prison for Chalke-Lopez. Tyl Bakker, Chalke-Lopez's attorney, asked the judge to impose an 11-year sentence. He said his client has a drug addiction himself and that his age and prior lack of incarceration should be taken into account.

Chalke-Lopez asked Simon for leniency and a chance at redemption....

After the sentencing, Chalke-Lopez shuffled out of the courtroom under the glares of Ron and Julie Putnam.... Read more about Heroin dealer who played part in Keizer woman's fatal overdose gets 18 years in prison

A Washington County jury has found Eloy Vasquez-Santiago guilty of murder in the 2012 killing of a 55-year-old mother of six, who was a field hand in the berry farms around Hillsboro.

Maria Bolanos-Rivera went on a date with her coworker Vasquez-Santiago on Aug. 26, 2012, and never returned....

Jurors reached their verdict shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday, after more than nine hours of deliberations, which began Friday afternoon...

Bolanos-Rivera's children and other family members -- 11 in total -- were in the courtroom for the verdict.
  Read more about Verdict: Man guilty of murder in Hillsboro woman's disappearance

WASHINGTON – Local law enforcement must be involved in securing “the rural parts of the Southwest border,” which is still dangerously insecure, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels told a Senate panel Tuesday....

“I want to be crystal clear: The border is not secure,” said Chris Cabrera, a Border Patrol agent who was testifying on behalf of the National Border Patrol Council.

Cabrera said some people don’t realize the extent of border issues because the Department of Homeland Security uses data that inaccurately shows that border patrol agents are “75 percent effective in apprehending illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.”

A more realistic metric is somewhere between 35 – 40 percent – and that percentage is even lower when dealing with experienced criminals in the drug cartels, he said.

Dannels said trafficking of drugs and people has “diminished the quality of life” for residents of Cochise County and placed “unbearable strain” on the county’s budget and resources.

Dannels laid the problem squarely at the feet of federal officials, whose changes to border priorities in the 1990s forced illegal activity into the rural areas along the border.

“I am not proud to say that today we are a product of the federal government’s plan,” Dannels said.

Dannels said that fear is rampant along the border – with many of his constituents afraid to leave their homes.

“It’s just a horrible way to live when we live in the United States,” he said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said at the hearing that the border can be secured through proper use of assets, strategies and technology.

“Those who say, well you just can’t do it – they obviously are incorrect because every nation has the obligation to have a safe and secure border,” McCain said....

“Those that choose to live on our border should deserve the same freedom and liberty as those that live here in D.C., Iowa and beyond,” Dannels said.
  Read more about Arizona residents, officials tell senators Southwest border ‘is not secure’