Aug 29, 2013 - Anony. sender - Victims of Illegal Aliens 2002

RIME VICTIMS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS
There is an enormous number of Americans who have been harmed by the criminals who pass through the nation's open borders. For that reason, this section can only provide a symbolic tribute to the many unnamed victims who have been killed, raped, robbed, crippled and otherwise personally violated.
It is particularly shocking that even in post-911 America, the government still refuses to protect the people in the most basic ways from the world's terrorists and criminals who enter at will to do as they please. The borders remain a sieve while the human carnage from crime perpetrated from illegal aliens continues to mount. In another stunner of INS malfeasance, the agency often cannot even manage to deport dangerous criminal aliens when they reach the ends of their prison terms.

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• The murder of Kris Eggle (see the separate page of collected articles), a park ranger in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona on August 9, 2002, was little noted by the media, although the press has paid considerable attention to the deaths of illegal aliens on the border. By contrast, Ranger Eggle was shot down by Mexican drug dealers who were using Organ Pipe as a route for their smuggling. Only 28 when he was murdered, Eggle was a valedictorian and an Eagle Scout who joined the National Park Service because he loved the outdoors. (Organ Pipe is considered to be the most dangerous of the national park system: 200,000 illegal aliens and 700,000 pounds of drugs were intercepted at the park in 2001.) The Eggle family is determined that his death will not be forgotten by working for real border control, including a Washington press conference with Tom Tancredo in the fall of 2002. The Eggles have a family website, www.kriseggle.org, to inform interested parties about what they are doing.

• In a particularly tragic example of government inattention to illegal aliens who have run amock, one of the snipers who terrorized the Washington DC area for three weeks in October 2002 was a foreign national who had been apprehended the previous year. As a stowaway, he was required by law to be immediately deported back to his home country. Instead, the INS overroad the Border Patrol's designation and released John Lee Malvo upon the unsuspecting American public. Had immigration law been followed by the INS, there would have been no two-man hit team and it is likely that there would have been no devastating series of murders. As columnist Michelle Malkin has observed, the INS releases dangerous alien criminals all the time. • David Nadel was a familiar community activist in Berkeley, California, and owned the popular Ashkenaz dance club that featured eclectic music, such as zydeco, cajun, klezmer and the blues. In 1996, he was murdered in the club by an apparent Mexican illegal alien, Juan Rivera Perez, whom Nadel had earlier ejected for harassing other patrons. Perez was in Ashkenaz as part of an English as a Second Language program graduation party. Police believe Perez escaped to Mexico, which is famously unhelpful in extraditing violent criminals. Despite the outcry from law enforcement, victims and the press, our government does not insist on normal compliance in law enforcement from Mexican authorities. • In another case of justice denied, the murderer of Phoenix high school student Tanee Natividad merely crossed the border into Mexico to escape law enforcement. A local television station was able to track down the murderer in a bar just a few miles across the border without much effort. Max LaMadrid has no reason to hide because the Mexican government actually helps violent criminals escape American justice. According to Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano, action by the Mexican supreme court making it more difficult to extradite criminals has "created an incentive for people to flee into Mexico as a safe harbor." At one time, Mexico would not extradite criminals who might be subject to the death penalty; the Mexican court recently extended this "protection" to any Mexican who might receive a life sentence, thereby giving a free pass to rapists, kidnappers and child molesters. In fact, the investigating reporter found 100 cases of violent criminals from the Phoenix area escaping into Mexico in just the last few years. Meanwhile, the grieving family of 16-year-old Tanee gets no justice — like thousands of others in the southwest. • At the left is shown Darlene Squires, the distraught mother of a disabled teenager, one of two girls who were raped on October 24, 2002, by three members of a Salvadoran street gang located in Somerville, Massachusetts. Aged 17 and 14, both victims are deaf and one has cerebral palsy. Mrs. Squires believed that the attacks were a retaliation against her family because her husband confronted the young men after they had harassed the Squires son. Later reports indicated the men arrested for the crime were illegal aliens.Law enforcement officials were concerned about increased violence from the MS-13 gang which was "believed to have originated in part with soldiers and their families who left El Salvador." Local residents estimate the gang has more than 100 members in their community. An update a few months after the Squires crime showed that the gang problem in the community has only gotten worse. • The lives of many law enforcement officers have been lost at the criminal hands of violent illegal aliens. One such was David March, a Los Angeles County Sheriff who was killed when he pulled over a car for a routine traffic stop. The driver was a dangerous Mexican drug dealer, Armando Garcia, who had been deported twice and has a long history of violent crime. After shooting Sheriff March twice in the head, Garcia was able to escape and is believed to be in Mexico, where officials refuse to send him back for trial. Garcia is also wanted for two attempted murders. At least one member of Congress, Adam Schiff, has called for President Bush to insist that Mexico extradite violent felons. Furthermore, the Attorneys General for all 50 states wrote to Ashcroft and Secretary of State Colin Powell to demand action on the extradition issue. • Compared with many on this page who suffered violent crime, Barbara Vidlak got off easy with just identity theft. Still, you wouldn't want her problems. The rip-off of her Social Security number by an illegal immigrant has caused Barbara's phone to be turned off, loss of health insurance for her two kids as well as extra money out of pocket from the 34-year-old Omaha resident for credit checks and other expenses, such as lost time at work. She also had to act as a detective to track down the culprit who has filled her life with turmoil and stress. The reporting on this crime is notable for its relentless sympathy for the perpetrator, even when the damage to the victim is obvious for all to see. Rather than note how illegal immigration is not a victimless crime, reporter Cindy Gonzalez quotes an "immigrant rights" advocate who says that "In some ways, both women are victims." • Eighteen-year-old Tricia Taylor of Detroit was in court in December 2002 to hear the plea of the illegal alien who caused her to lose both legs above the knees. Jose Carcamo was driving under the influence (.08 percent blood alcohol level) and speeding when he drove over a curb and smashed Taylor into a wall. One report stated that Carcamo has had 17 violations since 1995. Another noted that he was drag racing at the time of the crash. It is agreed that the car was travelling between 50 and 75 miles per hour on a street posted for 25 mph. Taylor's companion Noah Menard suffered a fractured skull and collarbone, as well as requiring eight pins to reconstruct his mangled elbow. The INS had twice begun deportation proceeding against Carcamo to return him to El Salvador, but regrettably did not follow through. Carcamo will be out of jail in a few years, but Tricia Taylor faces a lifetime of pain and disability because of another failure of the INS to remove a dangerous alien. Incidentally, drinking to excess and then driving is celebrated in Hispanic cultures rather than condemned.
Sentencing Update: On January 13, 2003 Jose Carcamo was sentenced to 3-5 years in prison. Four months after the crash, Tricia Taylor still must take pain medication, antibiotics, anti-depressants and sleeping pills. Chronic bone infection means she may yet lose more of her right leg. Carcamo sent a note of apology to Taylor and Menard, but misspelled the names. She responded, "It hurts me every time I see him. He acts like he's sorry, but you'd think he would know our names." She is not forgiving, either: "I have my whole life with no legs ... I'm only 18. He gets no forgiveness." • Another American stymied in the pursuit of justice for a murdered child is Ron Cornell, shown here with a car-hood portrait of his murdered son Joey. His son's killer, Gonzalo Villalobos, escaped to Mexico and, like so many others, is being protected by the Mexican government's refusal to extradite. At one point, Villalobos' whereabouts in El Salvador were known precisely, but there is no extradition cooperation with that nation either. (After the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the United States sent $110 million in disaster relief aid to El Salvador.) This article includes a rogues gallery of mug shots of fugitives safe in Mexico. • In June 2002, these four residents of Whidbey Island in Washington were the shooting victims of a Jamaican national who was evidently frustrated that he had ruined his plans to get a green card through marriage to an American woman. Preston Dean "Hugh" Douglas angered his girlfriend Holly Swartz because he had sexually abused her seven-year-old daughter. When Holly moved herself and her child into her mother's house, Douglas reacted by shooting Holly, her mother Marjorie Monnett (the mother of eight children), Marjorie's son Bruce and Bruce's girlfriend Sierra Klug. Holly and Marjorie were killed, and Bruce and Sierra survived. Douglas shot and killed himself. Reportedly Douglas was in the country illegally, although he was working as a bouncer at a local Chinese restaurant. • On the day after New Years 2003, six-year-old Jose Soto was riding his bike around the parking lot near his parents' apartment house when he was struck and severely injured by a man backing out in a red truck. Witnesses were shocked when the man stopped and pulled the child from under the truck and roughly threw him aside before speeding off. At this writing, Jose is in critical condition in a Houston hospital and the perpetrator is believed to be on his way to Mexico, if not already there. The man's name was released a few days later: Jose Ines Morales. As noted above, once a criminal reaches Mexico, he has effectively eluded the law permanently, since America's southern neighbor refuses to extradite, as a matter of policy, criminals who may be punished according to the severity of their crimes. • Sister Helen Chaska was murdered in late summer 2002 by being strangled with her rosary beads — the beads were found imbedded in her neck. She was also raped, as was another nun who accompanied Sister Helen during walking prayers. Both women were in Klamath Falls, Oregon, doing missionary work when the crimes occurred. Her accused murderer is Maximiliano Esparza, who is in the United States illegally, and was convicted in 1988 of robbery and kidnapping in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to six years in prison, was released in 1992 and was on probation until 1995. By law, this man should have been deported to Mexico after his release in 1992. Instead, the INS allowed him to remain in the United States and commit even more heinous crimes. In this article, Michelle Malkin notes the Esparza crime and other examples of INS standard procedure of "catch and release" in violation of law.
Sentencing Update: On April 8, 2003, Esparza was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The sentence was a deal worked out with the prosecution to avoid a trial with the possibility of the death penalty. Klamath County District Attorney Ed Caleb said that he wanted to avoid forcing the other nun who had been attacked to testify. In addition, Caleb sent a bill to the Mexican consulate for the cost of investigating and prosecuting the case. Not much chance of getting any money, but it is a reasonable gesture. • It has been a decade since Oregon State Police Trooper Bret Clodfelter was murdered by an illegal alien, but the crime has not been forgotten. Trooper Clodfelter of Klamath Falls had arrested three Mexican men for being drunk and disorderly, then offered them a ride and was murdered for his generosity. The prosecuter sought the death penalty, but one dissenting juror meant Francisco Manzo-Hernandez got life in prison instead. To add to the tragedy, Clodfelter's widow Rene committed suicide a year after her husband was murdered. The couple had been married just over a month when the murder occurred. • Officer Sheila Herring was lost to a bullet from an illegal alien in an early morning altercation at a Norfolk bar on January 16. The accused man, Mario Roberto Keen, a citizen of Jamaica, had reportedly shot a man in the bar after which the police were called. When several officers arrived, Keen opened fire and shot Officer Herring who died later in surgery. Keen was shot and killed at the scene. He had been sentenced to five years in prison in 1990 for selling cocaine and was later deported. Keen attempted to re-enter the United States in New York in 1997, but was reportedly barred from entering. It is not known when Keen succeeded in entering the U.S. But back to Sheila Herring: from all accounts she was an excellent police officer and loved her job. She had been a cop in Detroit for ten years before moving to Virginia. She was 39 and had an 18-year-old daughter. • Angie Morfin of Salinas, California, testified before the House Immigration Subcommittee in June of 1999 about the murder of her 13-year-old son by an illegal alien gangster. Her boy Ruben was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and was shot down by a Mexican who escaped to Mexico. Her testimony also noted how the Latino community in her town wants immigration laws enforced, particularly to deal with the problem of illegal alien gangs that are responsible for a lot of violent criminal activity. Since her son's murder, Angie Morfin has spoken out about the need for more Border Patrol agents and other enforcement to make her community safer so that no other mothers must suffer the loss that she has. • Thirteen-year-old Laura Ayala went missing in March 2002, taken just a few feet from in her home in Houston. At this writing, there is no child and no body, although blood identified as being hers was identified in 2002 in the car of men believed to be connected with her abduction. Because of some evidence that she had been taken to Mexico, part of the search has been there. One complication was Houston's policy of "sanctuary" which disallows police from investigating a person's citizenship status. Illegal alien Walter Alexander Sorto was in police hands for traffic tickets but could not be deported because of the sanctuary policy: he is believed to be connected in Laura Ayala's disappearance which occurred several months after the ticket problem. Houston police office John Nickell testified before Congress (2/27/02) about how sanctuary laws inhibit the effectiveness of beat cops to deal with criminals and prevent crime. • The danger on the highways from truckloads of illegal aliens in border areas has been increasing drastically. It is not unusual for a van full of illegal aliens to speed down the road in the wrong direction to avoid American law enforcement, causing death and injury to both American citizens and foreigners. One of the worst examples (shown at the left) took place near San Diego June 25, 2002, where seven people were killed and at least 31 were injured when a van tried to avoid a border checkpoint by turning the lights off and speeding against oncoming traffic in the wrong lane. Larry S. Baca of Albuquerque was killed when his Ford was smashed head-on by the immigrant van and knocked airborne. On March 10, 2003, two men were killed and 20 people were injured when a stolen truck loaded with illegal aliens tried to outrun American authorities. • Dana Pevia was kidnapped from her North Carolina school bus stop in 1999 when she was only 11. In March, 2003, she was able to escape her captivity in Mexico and visit the American Consulate in Guadalahara. The officials there contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and through them reached Dana's mother Wanda was contacted. Dana returned home a few days later with her two children. The apparent kidnapper Hector Frausto, a "Mexican construction worker," was arrested in North Carolina on March 27. Dana was evidently forcibly kept captive by his family in Mexico for much of that time. She was only able to get away because she had the help of a sympathetic neighbor. The unasked question is why the obvious suspect's family in Mexico was not investigated four years ago. Was the unhelpful Mexican legal system being obstructionist yet again? • The Marti family as pictured here during a happy moment no longer exists. Sean, just 24 years old, and his daughter Sage, 5 months old, were killed February 27 by a drunk illegal alien who was driving the wrong way on Highway 84 in Idaho. Natalie Marti was in a coma after the head-on crash and returned slowly to waking consciousness over a period of weeks. With coma victims, full mental functioning and memory can take much longer. She had attended college in Boise while she and Sean managed an apartment complex.
Edgar Vasquez Hernandez, who worked as a house framer, was charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and one count of aggravated driving. Court records show Hernandez was intoxicated at the time of the crash. Hispanics are statistically more likely to drive drunk than other groups, and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death up to age 24 among Latinos.
Sentencing Update: On June 10, 2003, Hernandez pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular manslaughter and one charge of aggravated driving under the influence. He will be sentenced on September 18.
More Attention Called for Criminal Aliens (July 19, 2003): The Marti case was used as an example of crime that could have been prevented if there were adequate enforcement against illegal alien criminals. The Idaho Statesman reported that in February 2002, federal agent J. Kent Nygaard wrote a memo to immigration officials warning that American citizens would die as a result of irresponsible policies regarding dangerous felons. • Maria Suarez was only 16 and living in Los Angeles when she was sold for $200 to a 68-year-old man, Anselmo Covarrubias, who presented himself in the neighborhood as a brujo, a magician. He raped and abused her, utilizing brainwashing where he said he had powers from the devil, as he had done to many Mexican girls held in virtual slavery before her. A neighbor bludgeoned Covarrubias to death, and Suarez hid the weapon but was not directly involved in the killing. Still, she served 22 years in prison, and is slated to be released within a year.
Update, 12/16/03: Maria Suarez is about to be paroled after serving just slightly less than her sentence (25 years to life) and will reportedly be deported at that time. • Phoenix Police Officer Robert Sitek was shot four times 4/12/03 during a traffic stop altercation with an illegal alien that became violent. Sitek and his partner David Thwing were on routine patrol when a red truck cut off their squad car, and when the officers stopped the truck the driver began shooting. Officer Sitek was in cardiac arrest by the time he reached the hospital and lost a considerable amount of blood. Shooter Francisco A. Gallardo was a "Mexican citizen who had recently completed a seven-year prison term for aggravated assault." He had been deported after his release but had returned to Arizona. Gallardo was shot and killed as he tried to escape by Officer Thwing.
Medical Update, June 5, 2003: Officer Rob Sitek has had a slow but gradually successful recovery from injuries that surely would have been fatal to most. At nearly two months after the shooting, he has pulled out of a three-week coma, is still unable to walk but is determined to do so and eventually return to work. • David Lazarus is a familiar name to the readers of the San Francisco Chronicle business pages, and the reporter appears occasionally on television news shows like This Week in Northern California on the local PBS affiliate. As a successful middle class professional, he probably never thought he would become the victim of an illegal alien, but that assumption would have been very wrong indeed. Mr. Lazarus recounts his experience of identity theft by a Jamaican national Derrick Davis, who used Lazarus' social security number to get nine credit cards and several jobs. Lazarus called his troubles a "royal pain," one that "has made my own life miserable." But David Lazarus is lucky because his own reporting skills helped him investigate the case, unlike most of the nearly 700,000 Americans hit by identity theft every year. While Lazarus has the pleasure of seeing the perp behind bars, many victims have to work for years to get their lives straightened out, if they ever do. • Marc Atkinson was just 28 when he was shot and killed in a 1999 ambush by an illegal alien from Mexico. Officer Atkinson was a five-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Force, and was survived by his wife Karen, infant son and two siblings. The killer, Felipe Petrona-Cabanas, had around a pound of cocaine in his car when apprehended with two other Mexican nationals. The three came from a farming area in the state of Guerrero near Acapulco, and said they came to the United States to work but couldn't find any. A notable detail in the case is how an armed citizen, Rory Vertigan, came to the aid of the shot officer and helped apprehend the Mexicans, who certainly would have escaped over the border if they could have. • Christina Long's body was found face down in a creek in Greenwich, Connecticut, after she was killed by asphyxiation during rough sex. Christina, aged 13, met her killer, Saul Dos Reis, through the internet in a chat room, an aspect of the case which has gotten it a lot of media attention, unlike the criminal's immigration status. Dos Reis attempted to give himself an alibi by emailing the girl and apologizing for not meeting her the night of the death. In fact, he strangled the sixth-grader and then dumped the body not far from his home. The killer is a Brazilian national who evidently overstayed his visa by several years and legally should be deported when he completes his sentence. He was convicted of manslaughter in mid-April 2003. This article includes a video clip about the case.
Sentencing Update: At the sentencing, Saul Dos Reis stated, "I have not had a single night of sleep when I don't wake up drenched in sweat." Judge Patrick L. Carroll III responded, "That time for mercy was the evening your victim died in your hands." The Judge gave Dos Reis 30 years in prison, the maximum for manslaughter. • Randy Burris died a hero, saving the lives of a young mother and her baby, as Randy pushed Heather Carlson's baby carriage from the path of a car careening out of control. A resident of Clarke County Georgia, Randy was the father of three children and had struck up a conversation with Heather about her dog. The murderous car was driven by a drunk illegal alien, Ricardo Arriaga-Gutierrez, whose blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit even several hours after the accident. After running Randy Burris down, Arriaga-Gutierrez fled the scene, hid the car in another county and went to a party to establish an alibi. Midway into the case, the prosecutor requested that bail be revoked because of the flight risk to Mexico, and the judge complied. Arriaga-Gutierrez must serve at least 90 percent of his 15-year sentence for vehicular homicide under current state guidelines, plus three years for leaving the scene of the accident and driving without a license. He is legally required to be deported at the time of his release. • Officer Kenneth Collings of the Phoenix Police Department was killed in 1988 during the arrest of two robbery suspects at a local bank when one opened fire. One of the robbers, Ismael Conde, was quickly arrested but the other, Rudy Romero, escaped to Mexico. Romero was caught in southern Mexico in 2000 and brought back to stand trial. The Arizona Attorney General's Office credits help from the Phoenix Police Department, the FBI, the Attorney General for the Republic of Mexico, and the Mexican Federal Agency of Investigation — a rare and welcome act of extradition from our southern neighbor. In March 2003, Romero was sentenced to 98 years in state prison. • Unlike many on this page, Norman Wallace did not die at the hands of an illegal alien. The thirty-year-old MBA student from Youngstown, Ohio, was hard working and full of promise, according to all accounts. One of eleven children, he was active in his church as a young man. After getting a BA in Business Administration from Youngstown State University, he worked as a portfolio manager and managing partner of a food distribution company. At the Weatherhead School program at Case, he had recently been elected president of the Black MBA Student Association.
Norman Wallace was killed by naturalized citizen Biswanath Halder, who immigrated from India as a 28-year-old adult in 1969 and became a citizen 11 years later. Halder was arrested after a shooting rampage of seven hours in which several people on the campus of Case Western Institute of Technology were shot. The picture of the shooter emerging is of a person with serious psychological problems. Even though Halder had a degree in engineering, he began receiving Social Security checks in the late 1980s for his "disabilities." He sued several companies for not hiring him, starting in 1990. He sued Case University over his website allegedly being deleted by a Case employee, but the suit was recently thrown out of court, a possible motive for the rampage. On May 29, the Cuyahoga County grand jury issued a 338-count indictment against Halder, including charges of murder and kidnapping: he faces the death penalty.
As of this writing, the questions that should be asked have not: was Halder's "loner" rage an amplification of failed adjustment to American society, even after decades of living here? In 1993, he wrote, "The only thing I had in my mind when I created the Asian Indian Network was to serve my fellow countrymen," hardly the sentiments of an assimilated immigrant. Was he noticeably psychologically unbalanced as a young man, and a person who should not have been admitted in the first place for immigration in normal screening? And why aren't these questions being asked? • Officer Hugo Arango of the Doraville (Georgia) Police Department was murdered by an illegal alien Bautista Ramirez May 13, 2000 — there's no dispute about those facts. But the June trial has not been a pretty picture as admitted cop-killer Ramirez pleaded self-defense because he thought Officer Arango would kill him otherwise, saying "if I don't kill him, he's going to kill me." The prosecution contends that Ramirez shot the police officer simply to avoid arrest. The original altercation occurred outside a nightclub, when Arango approached Ramirez, then 19, and his cousin. Ramirez was an illegal alien from Mexico, and possessed a concealed gun. Also injured by Ramirez was nightclub manager David Contreras, who survived being shot in the face.
Update, June 25, 2003: Bautista Ramirez was found guilty of the murder of Officer Arango, as well as of carrying a concealed weapon and aggravated assault against David Contreras, who was blinded in one eye in the attack. Evidently the jury was not impressed with the defense strategy of blaming the victim. The jury decided Ramirez should get life in prison (with the possibility of parole) plus 20 years for shooting Contreras and one year for gun possession. According to the strange math of sentencing, the convicted cop killer could be out in 46 years or less. • Nine-year-old Jennette Tamayo was kidnapped from her San Jose house on June 6 after her arrival at around 4 pm. A surveilance video revealed that the kidnapper waited outside in his car for the girl to enter the house. The girl's mother and 15-year-old brother arrived half a few minutes later and couldn't open the garage door to enter. When the brother ducked underneath the door he was attacked and choked by the intruder. The mother got in and tried to fight off the man, but he managed to escape with Jennette in his car. An Amber Alert was put into effect soon after. Police were concerned the Latino man who kidnapped Jennette was headed for Mexico, where he would be safe from American prosecution which is known to deal harshly with child kidnappers.
Update: Jennette walked into an east Palo Alto convenience store a couple days after her abduction. Her detailed description enabled police to arrest the suspect just a few hours later, also not far from her home. After some reports that the man used at least three aliases, mainly Enrique Alvarez, writer Michelle Malkin confirmed that the kidnapper is indeed an illegal alien. • Victoria Hen was a victim of terrorism in America. She was shot and killed as she sat at her desk by Hesham Mohamed Hadayet on July 4, 2002, at the El Al ticket counter in Los Angeles International Airport. She was born in Israel and emigrated with her family to the US in 1990. Particularly sad is the fact that her family had planned a surprise party for her the next day where her boyfriend intended to propose. To add to the unimaginable tragedy for the family, Victoria's 18-year-old brother Nim was killed just four months later in a traffic accident with a hit-and-run driver. The LAX shooter was born in Egypt and lived here for a time as an illegal alien and was even considered for deportation until he got lucky when his wife won the Diversity Lottery. Even though Hadayet went to LAX armed to the teeth, expressed anti-American and anti-Israeli views and shot six people before he was killed by security, it took nine months for the FBI to call the crime an act of terrorism. In addition, it was reported just a few days after the shooting that Hadayet was connected with Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda. • Gary Selby was killed when an illegal alien with a blood alcohol level at three times the legal limit, Samuel Avalos Gallardo, drove over the dividing line and struck head-on the car Gary was driving. The three passengers were all badly injured but recovered. Gary's death occurred in October of 1992 when he was just 18 years old and just a few months after he graduated from high school. He was the older of two sons, and is still terribly missed by his family.
The drunk illegal alien, Samuel Avalos Gallardo, was arrested at the scene, tried and sentenced to 40 years for the death and injury he caused. Incredibly, the Nevada Department of Corrections wrongly placed Gallardo on a minimum security work detail, from which he escaped just six months into his sentence. Ten years later, this criminal is not behind bars where he belongs, but lives free somewhere. Gallardo's freedom remains a source of pain for Gary Selby's family, who still hope for the capture of the criminal and some justice. • Killing a horse is certainly insignificant in comparison with many of the crimes noted here. But the senseless cruelty of killing a beautiful animal as some sort of sick fun shouldn't be overlooked either. "This was an especially horrific and wanton killing," according to Sonoma County Prosecutor James Patrick Casey. Gentle Song was a thoroughbred mare that was the beloved pet of a 13-year-old girl in Sonoma County, California. The horse won three races and placed seven times in a racing career of 27 starts, earning $65,000. A couple of illegal alien ranch hands had a few drinks and thought they would have some kicks by running down animals in a field with a car and truck. The mare was struck and died of head injuries. Local animal lovers put together a $20,000 reward to find the culprits, a strategy which succeeded. Liobijildo Guzman Herrera and Noel Guido-Silva, both of Mexico, were arrested June 13. If convicted, the men could spend a year or more in prison and have to pay substantial fines.
Court update: The two accused horse-killers originally pleaded no contest in September, figuring they would get a slap on the wrist. When they found out that the sentence would be three years in state prison, they decided to withdraw the no contest plea and request a jury trial, which is now set for Feb. 4, 2004. • Oceanside Officer Tony Zeppetella was a rookie cop, who had been in the department just over a year, when he was shot three times and killed in a credit union parking lot by Adrian George Camacho, a Mexican illegal alien with a long criminal record. Officer Zeppetella was married with a six-month-old child. He was born in Whittier and enlisted in the navy after he graduated from high school in 1994. Tony Zeppetella was 27 years old when he was killed. The accused killer had been deported several times, and his criminal record lists drugs, illegal firearms possession and gang activity. Camacho fled the scene of the shooting to the home of his ex-wife's parents, and was taken into custody only after a four-hour standoff. • Eighteen-year-old Faith Johnston used her appearance on the witness stand to go public with her identity as a rape victim of Catholic Priest Kelvin Iguabita when she was only 15. The priest was arrested in January 2002 for assaulting her repeatedly over a four-month period at a church in Haverhill, Massachusetts. In the end, Superior Court Judge Richard Welsh sentenced the convicted Iguabita to a higher-than-requested 12-14 years in prison, after which the Columbian national will be deported to his home country. The trial and sentencing are part of the healing process for Faith Johnston, who has attempted suicide and has experienced panic attacks since the abuse. She is still unable to play the violin, because the calculating predator used music to get closer to his victim, and playing the violin reminds Faith of the assaults. • Christopher Shackleford, 19, was killed July 29, 2000, in Marietta, Georgia, by a drunk driver, an illegal alien whose blood alcohol was at twice the legal limit. Also killed were two other teenagers in the car — Julieanne Pascoe, 18, and Kelli Bourgeois, 19. Chris was an aspiring filmmaker, and was majoring in film at Georgia State University where he was a freshman.
When Atlanta INS assistant district director Bart Szafnicki read about the deaths, he decided that more serious action against drunk driving illegal aliens was needed, and he began deportation proceedings against 64 such foreigners in his district. "I thought about how I would feel if it was my child," said Szafnicki. "Anyone who is arrested for DUI who is an illegal alien needs to go home. The native-born population in the U.S. has largely recognized the problem with DUI. But with the new influx of immigrants, I just don't think the word has filtered down."
In May 2001, Sergio Montelongo-Sanchez, the drunk-driving illegal alien, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, DUI, reckless driving, possession of alcohol by a minor, and several other charges. For all that, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison. • According to Boise-based federal agent J. Kent Nygaard, the murder of Angie Leon is a crime that never should have happened. He wrote to immigration officials in February 2002, warning them that America's permissive policies in dealing with criminal aliens were putting citizens' lives at risk. He noted these details about the killing of Angie Leon by her estranged husband: "Mr. Leon was convicted on March 18, 2002, in the District Court in Canyon County for possession of a controlled substance, making him an aggravated felon under INS laws calling for mandatory detention and institution of deportation proceedings. Those deportation proceedings were never instituted even though INS was aware of the case." Angie Leon was shot to death May 19, 2003, in her Nampa, Idaho, apartment while her three young children and her mother, Sylvia Flores, called 911 from a car in front of the residence. • Eleodora Contreras, shown being helped to a court appearance by a police escort, was the mother of Walter Contreras Valenzuela, a 10-year-old boy who was murdered May 20, 2001, by an illegal alien from Honduras. Walter enjoyed playing along the Whippany River, just a short distance from his Morristown, New Jersey, home. He liked to fish in the river, with friends or sometimes with people he met on the bank. Tragically, one whom he met, Porfirio Jimenez, was a sexual predator. In another case of INS and police failure, the alleged killer had been arrested three times, once for threatening a man with a knife, yet the illegal alien remained in America to commit much more serious crimes. The boy was beaten so badly that his mother could not recognize his face, and he was sexually molested before being murdered. Porfirio Jimenez is scheduled to go to trial in January 2004. • Stanley Hope lost his wife Kimberley when she was murdered April 8 by an illegal alien in order to steal her car. Stanley went looking for Kimberley when she failed to come home from feeding a neighbor's dogs and found her at the friend's house, laying on the floor with her head in a pool of blood where she had been killed. The police arrested suspect Daniel Gonzalez Berumen of Mexico when he attempted to drive Kimberley Hope's stolen car across the border. He had earlier been in prison for displaying a firearm from a vehicle in Los Angeles County in 2001, then was paroled and deported. Berumen is charged with murder, robbery and burglary, and could face the death penalty. • In January 2002, five-year-old Ana Cerna was another tragic death at the hands of a irresponsible illegal alien. The girl was one of five children and one adult hit by the car driven by Osvaldo Urzua, a Mexican living in Oakland, California. Ana died after being taken off life support; she had attended kindergarten. Urzua sped away from the crime scene because he feared being deported and expressed no interest in what had happened to the children he struck. On July 15, 2002, he was ordered to spend six years in prison, a disappointingly short sentence for the families of the victims.
People like Osvaldo Urzua have created California's hit-and-run crisis resulting from the state being home to so many illegal alien drivers. The state's number of hit-and-run accidents has been accelerating, and is more than twice the national average for percentage of traffic accidents where the driver leaves the scene, i.e. 7.8 percent of the state's fatal crashes in 2001 compared with the 3.8 percent nationally. Since unlicensed drivers involved in fatal crashes may be deported, they are highly motivated not to be caught. As California Highway Patrol spokesman Steve Kohler remarked, someone who runs from an accident is "a person who may feel like they have nothing to lose." An illegal alien criminal would indeed qualify as someone with zero connection with the American community and nothing to lose.
See the map on the lower part of this page, Percentage of fatal crashes caused by hit-and-run drivers in 2001, which shows that high immigration states mostly correlate with more frequent hit and runs. • Colorado resident Nancy Law is a victim of identity theft because an illegal alien stole her Social Security number. She is shown with the paperwork necessary to clear up the fraud and get straight with the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies. Nancy began receiving notices from the IRS requesting payment of taxes for those jobs she was doing, like the gig in the Denver tortilla factory. In truth, Nancy Law works as a fifth-grade teacher and has never worked making tortillas, and the notice that she owed taxes was a frightening introduction to the underground world of fraudulent documents among illegal aliens.
Immigration reform legislation in 1986 required that employers determine that a job applicant be a citizen. As a result, document fraud has skyrocketed, even though fraudulent use of a fake Social Security number is a felony and can bring a prison term of five years. • Mariana Cisneros is currently listed by the FBI as a missing person, although she was last known to be in the custody of her mother in Nashville. This child was unlucky in parents: her mother Martha Cano Patlan is accused is the brutal torture/murder of Mariana'a four-year-old brother. The boy had been beaten and burned, and died from multiple wounds. The other accused killer is Martha's boyfriend, Genaro Espinosa Dorantes, who was added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list in August 2003. The FBI describes Dorantes as very dangerous. He was involved in illegal alien smuggling, so he may use those connections to stay hidden or to escape to Mexico. Obviously, this child is in danger if she is still alive. • Ariel Sellouk was murdered when his throat was violently slashed, nearly decapitating him. There are many questions about this crime, which occurred in Houston, August 6. The victim was an Israeli and the accused killer, Mohammed Ali Alayed, is a Saudi citizen with an expired student visa. One story refers to the two being "friends" although Alayed's roomate said that he had never seen the victim before. Apparently Sellouk and Alayed met for a drink, then went back to Alayed's apartment where he allegedly killed Sellouk in front of the roommate.
Since there is no apparent motive, the family believes the act is a hate crime and terrorism and the local Anti-Defamation League intends to pursue that possibility. However, police say Alayed has a history of selling drugs. He was arrested about a week later when he was found hiding in a closet of the same apartment complex where he lived.
Update, Jan 12, 2004: Saudi national Mohammed Ali Alayed pleaded guilty to the killing. Although police could not establish a motive for the murder, Alayed went to a local mosque after the crime and had recently become more actively Muslim. • The tragic death of Michael Seitz should be a cautionary tale in several respects. The 35-year-old Napa County vintner was apparently killed in a terrible fork-lift accident where the only other person present was an illegal alien worker. After Seitz's skull was crushed, Jesus Garcia panicked and dumped the body into a truck and drove it a half mile from the scene. For a while, authorities believed the death was a homicide. Later, the sheriff's department said either the new forklift malfunctioned or Garcia made an error. Was Seitz dead when Garcia disposed of the evidence? What if Seitz had been badly hurt — would Garcia have aided him?
As it is, Garcia is still in serious trouble. Fleeing the scene of a deadly accident and not reporting it is a felony; concealing a death is a misdemeanor. He could serve five years in jail. Garcia also has a DUI pending. On September 30, he pleaded not guilty to concealing an accidental death. Despite his illegal status, the court has set bail at $65,000. • Five-year-old Felix Leon was another another victim of a hit-and-run illegal alien on Sept. 29. The boy was struck and killed as he rode his bike near his home in Brownsville, Texas. Mexican national Carlos Jaramillo ran over the child with his pick-up and dragged the bike for about 40 yards, where passenger Domingo Acosta Lopez tried to remove the bicycle from the truck's undercarriage but could not. At that point, both Jaramillo and Lopez fled on foot. They were pursued by neighbor Leroy Redford who lives on little Felix's street, who was joined by others from the neighborhood. Lopez was caught then and Jaramillo was found two days later by police later hiding out in a local house, thanks to a tip.
Both men who were arrested in the crime are illegal aliens who had been deported earlier. Police are investigating their possible connection with other crimes and whether drinking was involved in this hit and run. • The sign in this photo reads, "I'm looking for Gonzalo Harrell-Gonzalez, illegal alien driver who killed my son. Have you seen him?" The face hidden behind the sign is that of Kathy Inman, who lost her son Dustin when an illegal alien crashed into the Inman's car. Kathy, husband Billy and son Dustin were stopped at a traffic light when a car driven by Harrell-Gonzalez rear-ended their car at 62 miles per hour. Both adults were severely injured and couldn't attend their son's funeral. Kathy was permanently disabled and was put into a wheelchair.
The perpetrator, Gonzalo Harrell-Gonzalez, escaped from a hospital and was never even arrested. A Gilmer County (Georgia) grand jury indicted Gonzalez on charges of vehicular homicide and serious injury by a vehicle. He remains at large.
The occasion which brought Kathy Inman out into the streets was the so-called "Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride," a caravan of buses demanding "rights" for illegal aliens. That's the crowd in the photo. Of course, real immigrants, the legal sort, have workplace protections just like the rest of us. Furthermore, illegal foreigners wrapping themselves in the civil rights movement is insulting to the real Freedom Riders of the 1960s, who worked for long-denied political rights for black Americans. • Little Madelyn Cumpston is sitting next to a statue of her older sister Annie, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident. Six-year-old Annie was struck and killed in downtown Baltimore as she and her family were leaving the circus March 22. At school, Annie Cumpston was active in dance and gymnastics. But as the family left the circus, even holding her mom's hand couldn't save her from being struck by a truck driven by illegal alien Guillermo Diaz when it veered into the crosswalk. She died later that evening at the hospital.
After striking the little girl, Diaz drove off. Witness Ryan Jones tried to stop the fleeing Diaz, Jones became caught on the door of the truck and was dragged for a distance. When Diaz was arrested, he did not have a driver's license, the tags on the truck were expired and his blood-alcohol level was 0.07 percent, just below the state limit of 0.08. Diaz has been in the United States illegally for four years doing construction work. At sentencing in early October, Diaz received 10 years in prison but is eligible for parole in just two years. • Bret and Jennifer Schwartz of Hollywood, Florida, did everything the right way when they hired a nanny to take care of their baby: they hired her through an agency, hired a private investigator and checked references. However, the child's fearful reactions when the parents left her in the hands of Peruvian Claudia Muro made them believe they might have made a mistake. Sure enough, the hidden video cams showed the woman violently shaking the child and possibly slamming her on the kitchen floor.
At this writing, Muro is in jail with $150,000 bail, charged with four counts of felony child abuse. Immigration officials have put a hold on the case, indicating Muro is an illegal alien. Whatever the woman's immigration status, this case shows the danger of hiring any immigrant because of the limited time frame that a background check can encompass. • Adriana Sanchez is a desired target for identity thieves because of her Latino name. The young woman had already passed a credit history check in order to get hired as a Los Angeles police officer, so she was surpised to find that someone in Atlanta had stolen her identity and had rung up $70,000 in debt. Sanchez, who works as a public information officer for the LAPD, felt a personal affront as well as ripped off, remarking, "You feel like you're being violated. . . . She even had my mom's address."
Investigators familiar with identity theft have noticed that thieves look for similar names to rip off. The LAPD officer's ID was stolen by someone named Adriana Sanchez-Palacios, who was charged in September for fraud and identity theft because the crime victim in this case knew exactly what to do.
The problem of identity theft has gotten so bad that some companies are offering identity theft insurance. • Border Patrol Agent James Epling died in performing his duties along the Mexican border, apparently drowning in the Colorado River in pursuit of several illegal aliens and was last seen along the shoreline as he followed the foreigners. He was the seventh Border officer to die in the line of duty in Yuma. Agent Epling was just 24 and was the father of three, going on four. His father-in-law is a retired Border Patrol agent from the McAllen, Texas, sector.
Just before disappearing, Epling had pulled a Chinese woman illegal alien out of the river. Three other Chinese were taken into custody the night of the disappearance, along with one Mexican believed to be the smuggler. Although there has been no evidence of foul play actually found, the smuggler can be charged in the death. • Shown in the photo is crime victim Tracy Owen of Nashville. The pregnant woman was murdered because a couple of drunk illegal aliens thought they had struck her in a traffic accident, so they decided to kill her in order to cover up the incident. In fact, it appears that they did not hit Tracy Owen with a truck at all, but she had fallen. Still, rather than offer aid to an injured woman who was pleading for help, the response was for the younger man to shoot her her five times. Both men were charged with criminal homicide.
Police detective Robert Swisher remarked "In my 22 years on the job, I have never seen anyone executed, and I mean executed, because someone thought they had hit the person with a vehicle. It sickens me."
The shooter, Antonio DeJesus Idelfonso, is 17 years old, and a later hearing will decide whether he will be prosecuted as an adult.
IHC has analyzed a lot of terrible crimes, but this one breaks new ground in the category of illegal alien hit and run — hit and murder. In another disturbing report, driver Eliseo Marcelino-Quintero said that Idelfonso grabbed the truck's steering wheel and tried to run down Owen when he saw her. • Denver police officer Robert Bryant was struck down in a hit-and-run as he was flagging down speeders near a school at around 3 in the afternoon January 22. There were numerous witnesses who said the driver gunned the engine of his Chevy S-10 pickup and purposely ran down Bryant, who was wearing a bright orange vest. The driver, a Mexican with no identification, was caught when he ran a red light a few blocks away and crashed into a car driven by an elderly man, who was also injured. Officer Bryant received serious injuries including a femur fracture but is expected to recover. Those who saw the incident say it is a miracle that he wasn't killed The Mexican driver apparently was drunk or on drugs, according to investigators and was injured in the crash. • Apparently the roadways of Great Britain are similarly threatened by illegal alien drivers who care little for common safety and less for obeying traffic laws. Nine-year-old Callum Oakford was struck and killed by an illegal Algerian asylum seeker as the young boy was on his way to visit friends. Kamel Kadri was denied asylum but was not deported, instead he remained and purchased an old Renault which he drove without license or tax. The family believes Kadri should have been found guilty of manslaughter and is disappointed he is serving only two years in jail.
Judge Anthony Thorpe said to Kadri in court, "Had you not stayed on as an illegal immigrant that young child would still be alive. It is intolerable that those who should have been removed from the country manage to stay for long periods of time and are no doubt often driving unsafe, unlicensed and uninsured cars since they clearly have little respect for the laws of this country."
The judge was seriously incensed by how weak the law is to deal with cases like this one, and how the maximum sentence he issued was reduced by a higher court. He suggested that insurance companies should issue drivers with a swipe card which they would have to display in their car and, more importantly, have to swipe at a fuel pump before being able to buy any gasoline. • Joseph Crummy was allegedly murdered by illegal alien Jesus Hernandez for $1345 that the Lehi, Utah, stucco contractor supposedly owed his one-time employee. This is an unpleasantly murky case where a 38-year-old man is dead, leaving a pregnant wife and four children. Hernandez reportedly shot Crummy in the face as they argued about the money at a job site, firing five or six rounds. A witness helped guide police to Hernandez a few hours later, who was at his mother's house where he surrendered. He is being held on $500,000 bond and is being investigated for murder, obstruction of justice and possession of a firearm by a restricted person.
Apparently Crummy did not pay a lot of his Hispanic employees, since a number of complaints had been lodged against him about wage disputes through the Utah Labor Commission, as had Hernandez. Those complaints were resolved or pending, so the killer would likely had received his money if he had followed the law. But border jumper Jesus Hernandez ended up showing his disdain for American law in the most extreme fashion.
And Joseph Crummy's law-breaking employment practices ended up being very expensive indeed. • Amber Merkle was only 8 when she died in a four-car wreck May 1, caused by illegal alien Arturo Lupian. A third-grade student in Decatur Alabama, Amber lived for a few hours on life support until medical staff took her off because there was no evidence of brain activity. She had been on a Saturday afternoon outing of ice cream and fun with her aunt and cousin.
The drunk driver Arturo Lupian had an elevated blood alcohol level of .11 at 2:30 in the afternoon when his vehicle slammed into the stopped SUV in which Amber was riding. (Alabama has a limit of .08.) There were no skid marks at the accident scene, so apparently Lupian didn't even try to stop. If convicted, he faces 2 to 20 years in prison for manslaughter.
Amber's mother Ruby remarked, "I hope he does more than two years. I don't want him going to Mexico and getting another name, and doing it again."
Update: Three months after the death, emotional recovery has been difficult for Amber's mom, but has been helped a great deal by a supportive community and good friends. • Vinessa Hoera was a young single mom, only 23, when she was brutally raped and murdered by an illegal alien from Guatemala, Faustino Chavez, who apparently was angry when his advances toward her were not received positively. The bruises on her body showed that she tried to fight off her attacker but was not successful.
The young woman's family was shocked to hear the details of how savage her murder had been, like how her throat had been slashed several times from ear to ear. "I'm in shock," said Donna Hoera, the victim's mother. "I'm sick, I didn't know a lot of what they said." She further described her daughter as "on the up. She was a single mom, just bought a new car. She was a life-lover, a very positive person." Vinessa had a five-year-old son. • Troy Payton was stabbed to death with a butcher knife by an illegal alien, Abimael Azmitia, during a confrontation after Azmitia had insulted a 15-year-old girl, all of whom lived in a residence motel near Las Vegas. Even though the killer was a previously deported illegal alien, District Judge Joseph Bonaventure sentenced Azmitia to only 19 to 48 months even though the killer pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Azmitia also had a prior arrest record for assault and domestic violence in Colorado, and had been deported a month before the killing.
Troy Payton was an iron worker who was remembered by his friends and family as someone who cared deeply for Nevada's history and wide open spaces. "He loved wild horses, Harley Davidsons and mines," according to his mother Peggy Irving. He was 32 years old when he was killed in April. • Officer Will Seuis a motorcycle patrolman in Oakland, California, was killed on his ride home by an illegal alien. Fortunately some witnesses on the highway immediately phoned 911 and the accused hit-and-run driver, Carlos Mares, was quickly caught. Mares was driving his truck with a commercial load.
A sixteen-year veteran of the Police Department, Officer Seuis was remembered at his funeral as a hard-working cop who had received 33 letters of appreciation from citizens, including one from a motorist he had ticketed. He had been in traffic enforcement since 1998, and was a member of the department's 20-member precision motorcycle drill team. Seuis left a wife, Michelle, and two daughters.
The accused killer has a history of traffic convictions. It's curious that illegal alien Mares has his own business, Mares Trucking. • Officer Michael Gordon lost his life to a drunk driving illegal alien. The Chicago policeman was in the driver's seat of his squad car when it was struck by Luis Calle, a Guatemalan whose blood alcohol level was 0.177, twice the legal limit. Another officer, John Delcason, sustained injuries and was in fair condition in the hospital a few days after the incident. Luis Calle died a few hours after striking the police car.
Michael Gordon is survived by his wife and four children. Several of his relatives have also been police officers, including his father, brother, uncle and cousin. Before entering the police department, Gordon joined the 81st Airborne right after high school, serving in Bosnia and Korea. As a policeman, he asked to be assigned to a tough part of Chicago because he wanted to do more than just write tickets. • Terry and Lisa Dilks were found murdered from multiple gunshot wounds in their home in Urbandale, Iowa. On August 26, police announced that they had arrested one suspect of two, an illegal alien from Mexico known as Leocardio Lopez, but whose actual name is Audiel Molasco-Tello. The Dilks had a 15-year-old son, Dustin, but he was not at home at the time of the killing. Now he's an orphan because illegal aliens murdered his parents.
Also sought in the crime is another man, Raymundo Cruz Gomez. Gomez was a former employee at Applebee's Restaurant where he worked as a cook. Terry Dilks was his supervisor there.
Update: A month after the Iowa double murder, not a great deal has changed. Molasco-Tello has been indicted for re-entering the country illegally and Gomez is still being sought, though local police believe he has left the area. • What sort of monster could murder three children in the most brutal manner — one child was beheaded and the two other were nearly decapitated. They also suffered a variety of injuries including blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. The victims, residents of Baltimore, (l. to r.) were siblings Alexis Quezada (10) and Lucero Quezada (9) and their cousin Ricardo Espinoza (9).
The two men arrested for the crime were also relatives: Policarpio Espinoza, 22, brother of the father of the two siblings, and Espinoza's cousin Adan Espinoza Canela, 17. The accused are illegal aliens as are the parents of the murdered children. Apparently the arrests were based on DNA/blood evidence. • We must add the name of Brandon Winfield to the list of police officers murdered by illegal aliens. On Thursday, Oct. 14, Officer Winfield was checking out a disabled vehicle on State Route 423, south of Marion, Ohio, and apparently felt he was helping a stranded motorist. Details of the murder are not exactly clear, but Winfield was found shot in the head in his patrol car which had run off the road.
The police are now searching for Juan Carlos Cruz who is considered armed and dangerous. Another suspect, as yet unnamed, is being held and is believed to be an illegal alien.
Deputy Winfield was married and had two sons, ages 2 and 3. The photo shows him with his three-year-old son Landon. • Another tragic addition to the list of unnessary deaths caused by violent illegal aliens was the newlywed couple, James and Emilia Lee of Huachuca City, Arizona, who had been married only six weeks. They were killed Oct. 16 when a truckload of at least 17 illegal aliens traveling at 90 mph crashed into several vehicles near the town of Sierra Vista, leaving a horrific scene of carnage. The aliens were trying to escape police after they had run a stop sign, and the truck rammed into a line of nine vehicles waiting for a turn light near Fort Huachuca.
The photo shows James Lee's son Joe and grandson Christopher. James was 75 and his new bride Emilia was 71. The couple had been planning a fishing trip to Mexico with Joe and other relatives. Both James and Emilia were known as neighborly, never hesitating to reach out to help. James often helped out when someone needed a home repair done, and Emilia was an active volunteer for her church. Nearly 300 friends and family attended the services for the Lees held Oct. 21.