A Guatemalan man who apparently entered the U.S. illegally after being deported twice has been charged with killing an Iowa girl and her kids. Marvin Oswaldo Escobar-Orellana, 31, made an preliminary court docket appearance Thursday in Des Moines, where the decision set his bond at $3 million cash and scheduled his subsequent listening to for July 29. He is charged with 3 counts of first-degree murder and hasn’t entered a plea.
Escobar-Orellana turned into arrested Tuesday night time within the fatal shootings of 29-yr-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez and her two youngsters, 11-year-antique Grecia Daniela Alvarado-Flores and 5-12 months-antique Ever Jose Mejia-Flores.
A police spokesman stated investigators have been told that Flores-Rodriguez had come to Iowa to paintings with Escobar-Orellana, a self-hired roof artisan. Our bodies of the three have been discovered at the house that they shared with Escobar-Orellana, police Sgt. Paul Parizek said Thursday. Escobar-Orellana’s wife and his own youngsters additionally lived in the domestic, however, were now not at the home at the time of the killings, Parizek said
Escobar-Orellana referred to as 911 after the shootings, the government said. In a crook complaint, police say that in step with an unidentified witness, Escobar-Orellana shot Flores-Rodriguez at some stage in an issue after which went within the circle of relatives’s apartment and shot the youngsters, the Des Moines Register said.
Escobar-Orellana gave investigators an exceptional model of activities. He said Flores-Rodriguez killed the children and that he shot her in self-defense, police say within the complaint.
During his listening to, Escobar-Orellana asked the Polk County Associate Judge Becky Goettsch through a Spanish-language interpreter why he was charged with all 3 killings, while he only killed one man or woman — and that in self-defense. But police say that ballistic proof helps the witness’ account of what befell.
Goettsch assigned the public defender’s workplace to symbolize Escobar-Orellana, but the office hadn’t assigned each person to the case via midday Thursday, and court statistics didn’t list an attorney for him.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Escobar-Orellana gave police a fake call when they arrested him: Marvin Esquivel-Lopez.
Escobar-Orellana becomes deported in 2010 and again in 2011, stated ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer. In 2010, Escobar-Orellana became convicted of unlawful entry into the U.S.
His 2011 deportation stemmed from illegal access to the U.S. Close to Laredo, Texas, court docket facts stated. He changed into sentenced to 15 days confinement and ordered now not to go back to us of an illegally.
ICE has filed an immigration detainer and administrative arrest warrant with the Polk County Jail, Neudauer said. An immigrant who re-enters the u. S. Without authorization after having been formerly deported may be charged with a crime punishable by way of up to 20 years in prison.
Amid a heated political debate over immigration across the country, at least two Republicans have been quick to factor at the arrest as proof of susceptible border enforcement.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security looking for information of Escobar-Orellana’s full immigration history.
“The ugly act of violence that claimed the lives of a mother and her two kids in Des Moines this week is stunning and heartbreaking. What’s worse, it seems that legal guidelines in place to guard against such violence failed this young family,” Grassley said. “It is vital we recognize how someone who were two times deported from this u. S . Become capable of re-enter for as a minimum a third time and commit such an act of mindless violence. This case demonstrates another time the need for Congress to take action to extra successfully at ease our border and hold dangerous criminals from so easily getting into america.”
Rep. Steve King, a staunchly conservative House member from Iowa who become sanctioned earlier this 12 months through his congressional colleagues for defending white supremacy and white nationalism, also stated the case.
“There are lots of graves throughout this geographical region which are there because we didn’t implement immigration regulation,” King told CBS associate KCCI TV on Thursday. “They might be alive these days if we didn’t have sanctuary rules and if we enforced immigration legal guidelines flippantly and steadily across the board.”
The Des Moines Public Schools issued a statement following information of the deaths, pronouncing Grecia had simply completed fifth grade at Moulton Elementary School and Ever would have all started kindergarten there this fall.
