| New Jersey Murders
Posted: 8/10/2007 11:56:05 PM | Hope this hasn't been posted before.
NEWARK, N.J. — A Peruvian national in the U.S. illegally and who was previously charged with raping a 5-year-old girl pleaded not guilty Friday in the xecution-style slayings of three young college students, a day after he surrendered to the Newark mayor. Jose Carranza, 28, aka Jose La Chira, entered his plea before Essex County Superior Court Judge Michael Casale. A second suspect, a 15-year-old boy, has been held pending a detention hearing, and authorities said more arrests were "imminent."
Carranza, of Peru, was being held on $1 million bail. He turned himself in to Newark Mayor Cory Booker after his fingerprints were lifted from a bottle in connection with the shootings of four college students on Saturday. Three were killed but a fourth survived and was hospitalized after the shootings in a Newark schoolyard.
FOX News has learned Carranza, who has a fake Social Security number, had been arrested on charges of raping a 5-year-old girl and then threatening the child and her parents. In that case he faced a 31-count indictment.
In another, he was arrested on assault charges stemming from a bar fight.
Immigration officials apparently were aware of Carranza's illegal status since his prior arrests, according to Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura.
Relatives of the victims embraced each other as they entered to watch the hearing.
Carranza's attorney, Felix Montalvo, called Booker on Thursday to arrange his surrender.
“He said, ‘Mr. Mayor, we’d like him to be turned in directly to you,’” Booker said Montalvo, who also is a close friend, told him.
On Wednesday night, police arrested the 15-year-old boy who along with Carranza is accused of murder, attempted murder, robbery, weapons offenses and conspiracy to commit the crime of robbery, Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said. Authorities were seeking to have the minor tried as an adult.
Dow said she doesn't believe there is any familial relationship between the two in custody. The teen, who is Hispanic, is an American citizen with a Newark address, Booker said. “I don’t think words can describe the level of emotion I feel,” he said of the crimes.
“We will confirm that there are others we are looking for," he said, adding, "I am confident all the suspects in this investigation will be apprehended."
Carranza's attorney, Montalvo, led him by the hand during his surrender.
“He simply came forward," Booker said. "He said nothing. We put him in handcuffs."
The sole survivor of Saturday night's shootings, 19-year-old Natasha Aeriel, provided information from her hospital bed after being shot in the head.
Aeriel was with her brother, Terrance Aeriel, 18; Dashon Harvey, 20; and Iofemi Hightower, 20, who were forced to kneel against a wall and were shot execution-style outside a Newark school.
The students had been planning to attend Delaware State University.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292717,00.html
Of course this is another in a series of senseless crimes, but considering the past record of the murderer why was this person allowed on the street. Also the murderer lived in a sanctuary city, which doesn't require local law enforcement/city officals to cooperate with federal law enforcement officals, regarding immigration matters. Doesn't make much sense, was it planned, was it a hate crime, why a gangland style execution, many questions, very few answers. | |
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| New Jersey Murders
Posted: 8/11/2007 11:15:55 AM | | They will deport him now so he can come back and do it again just like in nevada an illegal was driving a truck that kill some and he got 4 years and will be peported so we can look for him to be back, but that is the way of are socitey look after the crimanal not the victmes. My slef i think thet should be put to death so we dont have to worry about them getting back and killing more people. | |
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| New Jersey Murders
Posted: 8/11/2007 2:16:49 PM | I am sorry for the shootings. I was really sad to hear about it. Here, there was an illigal immigrant from mexico. He had been deported several times. His last time being busted is when he caused an accident that killed a man.And read this. At the time of this accident, the boys fathers were serving in Iraq and returned on emergency leave.
The driver who hit two Greenwood Middle School students as they crossed Ash Street last year near the school will spend about two more weeks in jail, a judge decided Monday.
Wilder Fidelmar Mejia Alvarado, 20, of Bennett's Bridge Road, Mount Olive, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Jerry Braswell to 150 days in prison, with 136 days credit for time served. Alvarado could face deportation to his native Guatemala.
Braswell said Immigration and Naturalization Service officials have been contacted.
"The intent of my sentence is to keep the defendant in custody until (the INS) can complete the process," Braswell said.
District Attorney Branny Vickory said if the INS has not completed its case by the end of the two-week period, Mejia Alvarado will be turned over to intensive probation.
Mejia Alvarado gave police another name when he was arrested, and investigators found that he used at least six aliases.
The two 13-year-old eighth-graders, Mackenzie Wessels and Carson Thomas, were struck at about 7:30 a.m. Nov. 18, 2005, by a white Ford Explorer as they used the crosswalk with a green walk light between Meadowlane Elementary School and Greenwood.
Both students were rushed by ambulance to Wayne Memorial Hospital, where they were stabilized and then transferred to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in critical condition.
Wessels was released after about a week. He attended the sentencing hearing, but was on crutches and did not speak in court.
Thomas spent a much longer time in the hospital but has returned home. Vickory, who presented the state's case, said Thomas "was profoundly brain-injured."
When Mejia Alvarado was arrested at the scene by Officer Steve Powers, he gave the name Luis Delgado Jesus. At the time, he was charged only with four traffic offenses -- reckless driving, driving while his license was revoked, a stoplight violation and an expired registration. Those charges were dismissed as part of a plea bargain.
Vickory said the car dealer who sold the sport utility vehicle to Mejia Alvarado under a different name, Fernando Torres, identified Mejia Alvarado as the same man.
Vickory said two witnesses said they heard the Ford Explorer speed up just before it struck the boys. One said the traffic light had been red on Ash Street for five to seven seconds.
Duplin County authorities and his defense lawyers, Vickory argued, had identified the driver as Wilder Mejia. He carried a Guatemalan passport with the name Wilder Mejia Alvarado. The defendant also had a fake Mexican driver's license, the prosecutor said.
Vickory discounted a theory that Mejia Alvarado had fallen asleep, or was blinded by the sun, moments before the collisions.
"He was not a legal alien, but an illegal alien who was doing everything he could to stay here," Vickory said.
Defense lawyer Robert M. Smith, who was assisted by Billy Strickland II, said Mejia Alvarado has been remorseful.
He had worked the third shift at Mission Foods and went to get something for his pregnant wife.
Smith said his client understood the gravity of the situation.
Mackenzie's father, Dean Wessels, said he would not be forgiving.
"What he did was wrong," he told the court about the driver. "We want justice, and we want the maximum allowable punishment."
Julie Wessels said Mejia Alvarado might be remorseful but her son is still recovering from injuries.
Carson Thomas' mother, Heather, with her voice breaking, said she could not communicate with her son. She thanked the community for its support.
Before pronouncing sentence, Braswell said he knew what the parents had endured because his own daughter was seriously injured in an accident.
Braswell sentenced Mejia Alvarado to two consecutive terms of 75 days in prison, 20 to 33 months suspended and 24 months supervised probation.
The defendant was credited with the 136 days that he had spent in jail awaiting sentencing.
By Jack Stephens | |
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