ICE holds driver in crash (Denver Post)

ICE holds driver in crash
Aurora hit-run killed 2 women in pickup, 3-year-old in ice cream shop

By Kirk Mitchell and Ann Schrader
The Denver Post
09/07/2008 9:41 AM MDT

AURORA — As new questions arose about the man police say is responsible for the tragedy, several hundred friends and relatives gathered Saturday night outside an ice cream shop to mourn three lives suddenly lost.

"It hurts now," said Vito Kudlis, surrounded by friends as he and his wife, Enely, wept for their 3-year-old son, Marten. "It is freaky. It is crazy."

Marten, Patricia Guntharp, 49, of Centennial and Debra Serecky, 51, of Aurora all died when a Thursday night collision caused vehicles to careen into the Baskin-Robbins at the corner of South Havana Street and East Mississippi Avenue.

Saturday night, they were remembered in a candlelight vigil. Small children held glow sticks as others added stuffed animals — especially bears — to a memorial.

Francis Hernandez, the man being held for suspicion of vehicular homicide in the deaths, is now being detained by federal immigration officials.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials sent a faxed detainer on Hernandez, 23, at 12:04 a.m. Saturday, indicating his U.S. citizenship is under question, according to Arapahoe County jail officials and federal authorities.

Hernandez has been arrested 16 times in five years in Colorado but apparently has never been deported, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.

On Friday, Aurora authorities had indicated they believed he was a U.S. citizen.

Hernandez had been arrested in Denver as recently as July 18 on a traffic stop and charged with numerous crimes, including resisting police, CBI records say. Had he been held on an ICE detainer at that time, he would have been jailed until his case was completed and his sentence served and then deported, a time-consuming process.

Hernandez is now being held on the ICE detainer and for investigation of three counts of vehicular homicide, reckless driving and hit and run in Thursday night's accident, Aurora police spokesman Lt. John Sopranuk said.

His bail was raised Friday from $10,000 to $100,000, according to Sgt. Lisa Grosskruger of the Arapahoe County jail.

Sopranuk said Hernandez was driving a Chevy Suburban rapidly and erratically south on South Havana shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday. Police said he ran a red light at the intersection of Mississippi and Havana.

The SUV hit a northbound white Mazda pickup carrying Guntharp and Serecky, which was turning into the Good Times burger outlet. The impact sent the truck more than 100 feet into the corner of the Baskin-Robbins in the Market Square shopping center.

The two women were killed by the impact and Marten suffered fatal injuries from flying debris.
Dating back to 2003, Hernandez has been arrested for mostly misdemeanor offenses 16 times by police officers in Denver, Longmont, Aurora, Westminster, Lakewood and Broomfield and sheriff's deputies in Boulder, Gilpin and Arapahoe counties, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records. His charges have included forgery, assault, theft, fraud and driving under restraint.

Sopranuk said Friday that Hernandez was born in California and is a U.S. citizen.

But he added that detectives could find no indication that he had ever held a driver's license in California or Colorado.

Also according to CBI records, Hernandez, who has 11 aliases and two listed birth dates, has four listed birth places, including Mexico.

ICE placed a detainer because of indications he was born outside the country, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok. Officers are currently investigating his citizenship, he said.

When ICE did not place a hold on Hernandez following his July 18 arrest, he was released and has since been listed as a fugitive, according to CBI records.

There were multiple warrants for his arrest when the fatal accident happened Thursday, Sopranuk said.

Sopranuk could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Rusnok said it is possible that if Hernandez is in the country illegally that his status was not checked or identified previously despite numerous arrests.

He said in some instances suspects are arrested for minor offenses and they are released on bail or serve short sentences before a citizenship check is done.

ICE places a priority on deporting illegal immigrants who have been arrested for crimes, Rusnok said. Sometimes ICE agents make regular visits to jails checking for suspects illegally in the country, he said.

Back at the ice cream shop on Saturday night, the family announced that Marten's funeral will be 10 a.m. Wednesday at Fairmont Cemetery. Arrangements for Guntharp and Serecky are pending.

A "Memory of Marten Fund" has been established at Bank of the West.