MyFoxLA

The murder of Jamiel Shaw, the LA High School football phenom, on March 2 was a huge tragedy.

And the story took on more tragic overtones Friday when Fox 11 News learned that the alleged shooter, Pedro Espinoza, 19, was in this country illegally; that Espinoza, an 18th Street gangmember since he was 12-years-old, has spent almost all of the last four years in either LA county jail or in the custody of the California Youth Authority; and, finally, that it was only in the last week that authorities discovered that Espinoza - with his pretty extensive record of violent behavior - is an illegal alien who has been sitting in various lockups, under the very noses of the authorities for years.

A lot of "what if's" in this case. The most explosive one: Shaw might still be alive today if immigration authorities had a more air-tight system of detecting illegal aliens in the jails.

The chronology goes like this: On Nov. 18, 2007, Espinoza and two of his buddies from the notorious 18th Street gang (the largest criminal street gang in the U.S. if not the world) were - according to one witness - striding through the Syd Kronenthal Park in Culver City, throwing up gang signs; the park is only about ten blocks away from Alsace Street, homefield for the so-called Alsace clique of 18th Street to which Espinoza belonged.

The trio from 18th Street were trying to intimidate park visitors, a typical way for gangbangers to start trying to mark off their turf.

But before the trio could get too obnoxious the police arrived. The gangbangers scattered and Espinoza dumped a .380 Browning semi-automatic into some nearby bushes. Espinoza was arrested and charged with two felonies and one misdemeanor: carrying a loaded firearm; obstructing a police officer (at the police station, Espinoza got into an altercation with the cops) and exhibiting a gun in an angry, threatening manner (Espinoza pulled out a pistol during a brief confrontation with a jogger in the park).

Espinoza did not make bail and was convicted in January on two of the counts and sentenced to 180 days in LA County jail.

On March 1, Espinoza was released. On March 2, less than 28 hours after being released, he allegedly gunned down Shaw, only steps away from the football star's own house.

Only days after being jailed for Shaw's murder, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) put a "hold" on Espinoza after determining he was illegally in the U.S. This meant that if Espinoza ever beat the Shaw rap, ICE would immediately take him into custody and deport him.

To repeat: if ICE had been at the jailhouse door on March 1 when Espinoza finished serving his time for his Kornenthal Park antics, Jamiel Shaw might be alive today.

What happened? ICE has a "criminal alien program" meant to scoop up deportable aliens when they're being released from jail and promptly ship back to their homelands. When I asked an ICE spokeswoman how this program could have missed Espinoza, she said: "I don't know. The system is not 100 percent."

The failure to spot Espinoza was particularly troubling because of his extensive history of criminal activity. In May 2004 he was arrested for burglary and given a three-year term in a CYA facility. While in CYA, Espinoza was convicted twice of attacking CYA staff and a third time of assaulting a fellow inmate at the Eastlake Juvenile Center. Authorities also heard testimony late last year, in the Kronenthal Park matter, that Espinoza had been an 18th Street gangmember since he was 12.

A copy of the story I did on this angle to the Jamiel Shaw tragedy can be seen on this same website; it aired Friday night, 3/21/08.

John_Schwada's Blog

Shaw Murder: Suspect Here Illegally

John_Schwada

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