Because he could…
from statesman.com
Officials say timing, immigration status allowed Jaime Alvarado to be involved in a fatal wreck.
By Andrea Lorenz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
A combination of timing and immigration status affected the prosecution of a Honduran construction worker who had been charged three times with driving while intoxicated before police say he caused the wreck that killed a Tennessee man last month.
Jaime Alvarado, who faces a murder charge, was deported to his native Honduras at least once before and has never had a driver’s license in this country.
So what was he doing on the road Aug. 31, when he is accused of running a red light while being pursued by police – who suspected he had been drinking – and crashing into Robert Benn’s rental vehicle?
According to affidavits, in each of Alvarado’s previous DWI charges, the 23-year-old was driving around East Austin, drinking as he drove in at least two of the instances. Police found empty and open containers in his vehicle when he was arrested on U.S. 183 in September 2006 and on Pleasant Valley Road in September 2007. In November 2006, Alvarado was arrested near Pleasant Valley Road, this time for driving on the wrong side of the road. All incidents were within a few miles of the fatal wreck.
Typically, a person who is convicted of drunken driving three times becomes a felon and must serve at least two years in prison, which might have put Alvarado behind bars the night of the crash, with another year to go.
But Alvarado benefited from timing: His offenses took place within one year, before any were tried.
“We called them multiple firsts,” said County Attorney David Escamilla. “It’s where you get a DWI, and before you get convicted on the DWI, you get another one.”
Under state law, each subsequent offense would be considered the person’s first offense, a Class B misdemeanor.
Escamilla, whose office handles misdemeanor criminal offenses, said his hands were tied.
Alvarado pleaded guilty in a plea bargain to all three charges at the same time, even though they were spread out over a year. In the eyes of the law, the three convictions were first offenses – misdemeanors for which he was sentenced to three 80-day jail terms.
The maximum allowed for the three offenses would have been almost a year and a half, but the county court-at-law judge who sentenced him, David Crain, said he had expected Alvarado to be deported after his jail term.
“I had every reason to believe he would be deported back to Honduras, and we’d never see him again in this country,” Crain said.
Alvarado’s immigration status hindered the state’s case against him. He was in the country illegally and never had a driver’s license. Each time he was pulled over, he provided a different name and once a different birth date.
In September 2006, he was arrested and charged as Jaime Alvarado, born Aug. 18, 1986. Two months later, he told police his name was Donnie Noel Bonilla, born Aug. 15, 1986. At one point during the court process, Alvarado gave his name as Jaime Bonilla Ontivera.
“He intentionally changed the names,” Crain said. “I don’t think you could draw any other conclusion.”
Crain said the different names made it difficult for the court system to match up Alvarado’s three charges, and he presumed that had they made the connection, magistrates would have increased his bail amounts, which for each of the three charges was set below $5,000. Each time, Alvarado posted bail and was released from jail.
It’s unclear when the courts figured out that Alvarado had been charged three times, but in March 2008, there were three warrants of arrest issued for him for each of the cases for failing to appear in court. In July, he was arrested by police on a misdemeanor charge of failing to identify himself, and the plea bargain made by Escamilla’s office for the other three charges was accepted by Crain.
“It was a plea bargain that appeared to not be out of the ballpark of what is fair to me,” Crain said.
Alvarado had hired an attorney, Eloisa Ontiveros Garcia, for the three cases. Garcia said she didn’t remember Alvarado, although she said his name had sounded familiar when she heard about his recent arrest. She did not return further calls for comment. In 2008, Alvarado requested a court-appointed attorney, Rene Vargas, who worked out the plea agreement. Vargas did not return calls for comment.
A court program set up specifically to treat people with more than one pending DWI charge through counseling and other methods probably wouldn’t have been available to Alvarado because he was not in the country legally and because he didn’t show up in court when required, Crain said.
Instead, those arrested who are in the country illegally are supposed to be deported after serving their sentences.
“I can tell from talking to the prosecutors that (Alvarado) had an immigration hold on him, so that would mean they’re going to be in jail probably for the rest of the sentence, then they’re going to immediately be taken to the immigration facility,” Crain said.
Alvarado was released from the Travis County Jail on Sept. 22, according to jail records. He was picked up from jail by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and prosecuted by the federal government for illegal re-entry into the country following a deportation, said Adrian Ramirez, assistant field office director for the Austin area. Alvarado had previously been picked up by border agents in 2005 and sent back to Honduras, which made it possible to charge him with the illegal re-entry offense, Ramirez said.
Alvarado was sentenced by the federal court to time he had previously served.
It’s unclear whether Alvarado was deported following the 2008 federal case. Ramirez cited Alvarado’s privacy as the reason to withhold the information but said that agency policy calls for deporting those convicted in federal cases.
An immigration hold has been placed on Alvarado with the murder charge as well.
“That detainer stays in place until his state criminal case is concluded,” Ramirez said. “Once it’s concluded, he will come back to us in custody.”