An illegal immigrant who was released into the country by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) skipped his immigration hearing just weeks before stabbing a man to death in California.
The alleged murderer, Pablo Jose Gutierrez-Morales, a 31-year-old citizen of Nicaragua, reportedly entered the United States illegally in 2022.
The murder took place in Contra Costa County, a “sanctuary” county.
Gutierrez-Morales was one of three people arrested in May for the murder of a man who was said to be dating a woman that he had a crush on.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports:
On Feb. 10, police in Pleasant Hill, California, found 37-year-old Santiago Jacobo dead from multiple stab wounds at a local park where he worked as a janitor, according to local media reports at the time. His wife, worried when he hadn’t come after his shift ended, first discovered his body and called 9-1-1.
Following an investigation that spanned more than three months, local investigators announced the arrest of three individuals allegedly involved in the murder: 31-year-old Pablo Jose Gutierrez-Morales, 24-year-old Vanessa Vera-Aguilar, and 25-year-old Jazmin Ruiz. All three were taken into custody under the charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, in what the Antioch Herald, a local media outlet, framed as a “love triangle” stabbing death.
Detectives collected evidence indicating that the three suspects personally knew Jocobo — having previously worked with him at a local assisted living facility — and together they coordinated and executed the attack on him after he finished his shift as a custodian at the Pleasant Hill Park, according to the Antioch Herald. Investigators additionally determined that Jocobo had previously been in a relationship with Vera-Aguilar, one of the suspected murderers, while Gutierrez-Morales was pursuing a new relationship with her.
“Pablo Jose Gutierrez-Morales, an unlawfully present 31-year-old Nicaraguan national, was encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas Sector on July 11, 2022,” an ICE spokesperson told the DCNF. “He was paroled into the U.S. and monitored by ICE’s Alternatives to Detention (ATD) with instructions to report to Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Los Angeles for reporting.”
“On Aug. 22, 2022, he reported to ERO Los Angeles and was terminated from the ATD program with future reporting requirements,” the statement continued, meaning he was removed from ATD and was put on an order of supervision that required reporting as determined by an ICE officer.
Gutierrez-Morales is currently being held without bail and ICE has put in an immigration detainer for him if he is released.
