Vendaval
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Thank you for the link to the local paper, happypervert. This case is far from being over, since there is no statue of limitations on homicide. If charges are refiled then the US has extradition power over the two suspects.
"Charges dropped in Hazelton homicide"
Accused of shooting Hazleton man, illegal immigrants stay jailed during deportation process. Homicide case hit with setbacks.
By David Weiss
Court Reporter
Monday, July 9, 2007 8:13 A.M.
WILKES-BARRE – One witness was deported. Another changed her story. And a third would have had her testimony limited.
That combination of setbacks led to Luzerne County prosecutors on Friday dropping homicide charges against two illegal immigrants accused of gunning down a Hazleton man last year.
Pedro Cabrera and Joan Romero were charged in the May 10, 2006, shooting death of Derek Kichline outside his East Chestnut Street home. Police said the two 24-year-olds approached Kichline and shot him once in the head.
But since the duo’s arrest, the prosecution’s case imploded.
On Friday, assistant district attorneys Mike Vough and Gene Molino told Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. the setbacks would prevent them from prosecuting the men.
“We cannot go forward with the charges,” Vough said.
But because prosecutors dropped the charges, they can refile them if new evidence is uncovered in the future, Vough said. There is no statute of limitations on homicide charges.
In the meantime, Cabrera and Romero will remain jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility until they begin the deportation process, Vough said.
The problems for prosecutors started shortly after the arrest.
One witness, Sara Hittinger, once said that her then-boyfriend, Romero, told her that he and Cabrera shot a man. But Hittinger later wavered from that statement and refused to cooperate with police.
A problem also developed with some eyewitness’ testimony.
Kichline’s girlfriend, Tammy Gombert, was interviewed by police after the shooting. She told them she did not see the faces of the men who approached and shot Kichline.
Cabrera and Romero were still charged and appointed attorneys. Then, one day before their preliminary hearing, police showed Gombert a photo array. But the defense attorneys were not present, making it a violation of their constitutional right to counsel, the attorneys said.
On the day of the preliminary hearing, Gombert testified and identified Cabrera and Romero as the men who approached Kichline.
Defense attorneys believed the photo array was suggestive and tainted the identification so severely that they asked a judge to stop prosecutors from using any such identification at trial.
Before a judge could rule, the parties cut a deal that allowed Gombert to identify the shooters only as dark-skinned men and detail what they were wearing when they approached Kichline.
Then a key witness was inadvertently deported.
The witness, Cesar Ariel Jacquez, was supposed to testify that minutes after Kichline was shot, Cabrera and Romero entered an apartment a few blocks from the shooting and threw a handgun down on a futon. Jacquez later shot himself accidentally with that gun.
He was taken into custody by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials and detained to be deported.
Vough said local officials were in touch with ICE officials to ensure they held Jacquez in the U.S. until after he testified in the homicide case.
But Jacquez was inadvertently deported to the Dominican Republic.
Vough said he and other investigators went to the Dominican Republic in June and located Jacquez. But they have no subpoena power and were unable to force Jacquez to return and testify. He would have had to voluntarily return. He refused, Vough said.
“He informed us he did not want to testify in this case,” Vough told Olszewski.
Vough said Jacquez also changed his story about what occurred on the night of the shooting.
Without Jacquez, prosecutors would not have been able to use the suspected murder weapon at trial, Vough said. Jacquez allowed police to enter the apartment and search it. That’s when police found the gun.
But defense attorneys were also challenging Jacquez’s consent to the police search, and prosecutors needed him to testify that he did allow police inside the apartment.
Olszewski wanted to know how a witness as important as Jacquez could be inadvertently deported.
Vough said an apparent miscommunication by local and ICE officials led to the deportation. But he was not given a specific reason why it occurred.
“I’ve asked the same question,” Vough said. “I have yet to get an answer.”
Prosecutors had until Friday to take the men to trial under the state’s speedy trial law. Being unable to get to trial after working on the case for a year to try to bring Kichline’s family justice bothered Vough.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said.
A Romero attorney, Joseph Cosgrove, said he and attorney Michael Senape fought for a year to have the charges tossed because police did not have sufficient evidence to show Cabrera and Romero were the triggermen.
“With this dismissal, justice is well-served,” Cosgrove said.
But will the dismissal appear that the men got away with murder?
A Cabrera attorney, William Ruzzo, didn’t think so.
If there was evidence to show the two men were the killers, prosecutors would be taking the men to trial instead of dropping the charges, said Ruzzo, who defended Cabrera with attorney Cheryl Sobeski-Reedy.
Cosgrove and Olszewski still commended Vough for his candor and honesty throughout the case.
And Vough’s boss, District Attorney David Lupas, said Vough and other investigators in the case deserved commendation for their work, especially going to the Dominican Republic to find Jacquez.
“They really didn’t leave any stones unturned,” he said.
Prosecutors, Lupas said, could only rely on evidence they gather to prosecute a case. In this case, the bad breaks, especially the wavering witnesses, left them without enough evidence.
“Unfortunately, we don’t manufacture evidence,” he said. “We don’t make up evidence.”
If charges are refiled, prosecutors would have extradition power to return Cabrera and Romero to the U.S. to face the charges, Vough said.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/20070707_07tossed_dw_1a_ART.html
(format edit)
< Message edited by Vendaval -- 7/9/2007 8:26:25 AM >
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