Police nab illegal alien in home invasions

A felony conviction and subsequent deportation didn't stop Manuel Enrique Morales from crossing the border to return to Mesa, where police allege he and others terrorized victims with an assault rifle in a series of home invasions.

This time, though, the 19-year-old illegal immigrant is going to stay awhile because police jailed him and five alleged accomplices in the spree of armed robberies that span from Nov. 16-29.

Home invasions were becoming so rampant in Mesa in recent months that police formed a special task force to address the problem, which they believed was the work of as many as four crews.

"This is the major one," said Detective Chris Arvayo, Mesa police spokesman.

Court records show that even though police worked quickly in developing suspects, the crew pulled the heists off at a clip of nearly one every three days.

Mesa police had other suspects in custody and were on Morales' trail. Police said he left his fingerprints on duct tape used to bind victims, and they picked him out of a lineup - sometimes as the one wielding an assault rifle.

Then he got deported to Mexico.

One of his partners sold the rifle to help Morales get back across the border, and Mesa police nabbed him at 1 a.m. on Dec. 21, a search warrant affidavit states.

Now, Morales and five others are indicted on 50 counts of armed robbery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary and auto theft.

As of mid-December, officials said there had been 34 home invasions in the previous three months.

Police said that in some cases, illegal immigrants - or those perceived to be illegal immigrants - were targeted because they were more likely to keep cash in their homes because they often don't use traditional banking.

Police said they got their first break on Morales' group after a Nov. 16 home invasion of an apartment at 650 S. Country Club Drive. The two robbers tied up the four victims with zip ties and duct tape and took $1,500 in cash, cell phones, electronics and a Honda Accord.

Morales, who was placed on probation July 11 for three years for unlawfully discharging a handgun and possessing burglary tools, left his fingerprints on the duct tape.

Two days later, four men broke into an apartment at 509 N. Williams with adults and three small children inside.

The men brought handguns and an AK-47 assault rifle into the apartment, according to court documents.

Police said Juan Carlos Estrada Hernandez left his fingerprints behind, and the victims picked him and Morales out of a lineup.

Detectives were also able to develop Josue Alejandro Fuentes, 23, as a lead.

Through fingerprints, photo lineups and the suspects' statements, detectives were able to link Morales, Hernandez, Fuentes, 25-year-old Luis Alberto Moreno Lopez, 21-year-old Rodolfo Ochoa Cazarez and Sergio Chinchillas Felix to three other similar robberies that ended Nov. 29.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/article_60c22fca-2207-5ad3-ad59-59828d4b4616.html

DNA links illegal alien to serial rapes

He packed his car, withdrew his cash and planned to slip quietly into Mexico. But the escape was cut short Friday morning as Chandler detectives closed in.

Police then arrested the man on suspicion of sexually assaulting five girls and attacking another in the Chandler Rapist crime spree that spanned 18 months, police announced Saturday.

Santana Batiz-Aceves, 39, a twice-deported illegal immigrant with a history of drug charges, was arrested about 11:49 a.m. Friday at his Chandler home near Arizona Avenue and Ray Road. He was booked into Maricopa County's Fourth Avenue Jail on suspicion of 25 felonies, including kidnapping, child molestation, sexual abuse, sexual conduct with a minor, aggravated assault, burglary and trespassing.

He is being held without bond.

"From the beginning of this investigation, we have believed that help from our community and good, old-fashioned police work were the most likely avenues to solving this series of crimes," Chandler police Chief Sherry Kiyler said at a news conference Saturday. "This has turned out to be the case."

Police said DNA links Batiz-Aceves, a heavy equipment operator, to three of the sexual assaults. Items found in his car and house also link him to the attacks, police said.

Kiyler said the arrest unfolded Friday morning when detectives were working a saturation patrol in the area of the rapes.

A Chandler task force detective spotted a white two-door Toyota Tercel matching a car described in a Nov. 8 home intrusion linked to the Chandler Rapist.

Police followed the car and stopped it about 7 a.m. Friday near North California Street and Ray Road. During the stop, a detective noticed a jacket in the car matching descriptions provided by two victims.

Batiz-Aceves first told detectives his name was Ricardo Ramirez Lopez and that he lived in Casa Grande and was in Chandler for work and to find a friend, Kiyler said. When police asked to swab his cheek for DNA, he refused.

Officers kept a close watch on the man and obtained a court order for his DNA, but when they tried to contact him at his home, they said he was attempting to leave.

"When we went back to contact him, he was in the process of loading up his vehicle," said Chandler police spokesman Sgt. Rick Griner.

Griner said Batiz-Aceves also had a large sum of cash , and detectives concluded he was planning to flee to Mexico.

He was taken into custody on suspicion of providing false information to a police officer and identity theft and was ordered to give a DNA sample.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety Crime lab worked overnight examining the DNA strands, and its analysis indicated a match early Saturday to evidence in the case.

Capt. Paul Chagolla, Maricopa County sheriff's spokesman, said deputies specially trained to enforce immigration laws were able to identify Batiz-Aceves as an illegal immigrant after he was booked.

A friend who answered the door Saturday at the suspect's duplex at 1070 N. California St. declined to comment.

"I know the cops went inside last night," said neighbor Joe Ortega. "The cops busted over here. They opened the door and went inside."

Laura Mailloux, who lives across the street from the suspect , said she was so worried about the Chandler Rapist attacks that at one point she kept her children home from school.

"Everybody worries because we've got kids in high school," she said.

All of the attacks in the case occurred within a two-mile radius of Batiz-Aceves' home between Andersen and Willis junior high schools.

More than a dozen children played outside in the suspect's neighborhood Saturday morning. Some said they have played in the suspect's house and described the family as "nice."

Batiz-Aceves has lived in the area of the rapes for the last 18 months.

"He's the best renter I ever had," said Elliot Hall, Batiz-Aceves' landlord who knew the suspect as Ricardo Ramirez.

Hall said police contacted him Friday about Batiz-Aceves.

He said the tenant lived with his wife and two small children in the unit, a beige brick duplex with a dirt yard. Hall said Batiz-Aceves often paid his rent ahead of time and notified the landlord if he was going to pay late.

Kiyler said Batiz-Aceves was deported twice for drug charges in California in 1999 and 2003.

Andersen Junior High principal Jim Anderson said the arrest was a "tremendous relief."

"Everybody is going to feel a whole lot safer - if this is the guy - knowing that he's not going to be around anymore," Anderson said.

At least three of the attacks involved Andersen students, and the principal said the whole campus has been concerned.

The series of attacks started June 4, 2006, with the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl. That attack was not reported to police until six months later.

The latest sexual assault victim was a 14-year-old girl attacked at her mobile home on June 8 while her grandparents sat outside on the front porch.

All of the victims were girls between the ages of 12 and 15.

The serial predator typically struck early in the morning and targeted young girls living in single-parent homes. Police also believe the man watched his victims and cased their homes before the attacks.

Source - http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/article_0edc4577-45cc-500d-8eed-3c1c86d893ea.html

Employer of murder suspect arrested

Prosecutors say illegal immigrant charged in killing of officer got help to re-enter U.S.

The owner of a landscaping firm was arrested Wednesday and faces up to 10 years in federal prison, accused of harboring one of his workers, an illegal immigrant from Mexico charged with the capital murder of a Houston police officer.

Court documents show that Robert Lane Camp, 47, went to considerable lengths to help Juan Leonardo Quintero and keep him on the job at his Deer Park landscaping company before the September 2006 killing of officer Rodney Johnson.

In August 1998, Camp posted a $10,000 bond for Quintero after he was jailed on an indecency with a child charge and hired an attorney to defend him. After the worker was deported in May 1999, Camp sent him money in Mexico and later bought him a plane ticket from Phoenix to Houston after Quintero re-entered through Arizona illegally, according to an affidavit by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Camp then purchased a house in Houston and rented it to Quintero.

Camp walked out of the federal courthouse on Wednesday afternoon after U.S. Magistrate Stephen Smith approved a $50,000 bond following his first court appearance. His attorney, Jimmy Ardoin, would not comment after the hearing, and calls to Camp's home were not returned. No one answered the door at his Deer Park house Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle in Houston said the prosecution of Camp serves to "demonstrate the consequences a U.S. citizen faces" by harboring, employing or helping an illegal immigrant enter the country.

''The shooting of HPD officer Johnson was a tragic incident that could have been avoided," said DeGabrielle, in a statement released after Camp's arrest.

Camp also is charged with encouraging or inducing Quintero to enter the country illegally, and later harboring the immigrant in the Houston area. Quintero worked for Camp for at least 11 years, according to the affidavit.

Shot four times in head

On Sept. 21, 2006, officer Johnson stopped a truck owned by Camp's company for a traffic violation and arrested Quintero after the landscape worker could not provide a driver's license. As the officer wrote up his report in the front seat of his police car, authorities say, Quintero pulled a pistol overlooked in a body search and shot Johnson four times in the head.

The charges against Camp are the result of a lengthy investigation by the Houston Police Department and ICE agents.

Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Houston, echoed DeGabrielle's comments.

''Officer Johnson's terrible murder illustrates that hiring and harboring illegal aliens is not a victimless crime," Rutt said. "Many illegal aliens, especially aliens with criminal convictions, are desperate to avoid being detected and apprehended. These people also tend to take desperate actions, and the results are often tragic."

On the sixth floor of a Harris County Jail facility, Quintero seemed pensive Wednesday when told for the first time his friend and alleged employer was charged in federal court.

"Excuse me if I can't discuss details of the case. I just can't," Quintero said.

At the advice of his lawyer, Quintero said he couldn't talk.

"My situation is difficult, the options are life (in prison) or death," he said of what a guilty verdict would bring.

Quintero has largely been cut off from the outside world and the general jail population, spending his days locked in his own cell, a standard procedure for prisoners facing capital murder charges.

Jury selection in Quintero's trial is scheduled for March 31.

Police union hails arrest

Meanwhile, Camp's arrest was supported by members of the Houston Police Officer's Union, where Johnson served as a board member.

''We had concerns about the suspect being here, how he had got back into the country," said Mark Clark, the union's executive director. ''These concerns were taken up by HPD and other agencies following Rodney's murder, and we're fully supportive of this person who employed the subject being charged."

Clark said Camp should be held accountable in the officer's death. "It appears now that bill has come due in the criminal justice system," he said.

Camp's prosecution also was lauded by Texans for Immigration Reform, a Houston group which favors tightened immigration enforcement.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5442207.html

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