Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Kill and run to Mexico

Friday, April 7, 2000 | 10:09 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

"ON DEC. 5, 1999, Officer Devitte, while off duty in the Mr. D's Sports Bar, observed three masked gunmen enter the establishment. One of the suspects vaulted the bar and was pulled to the ground by patrons, while another suspect opened fire on patrons to help his accomplice escape. Observing that the lives of other patrons were in imminent jeopardy, Officer Devitte produced his off-duty handgun and engaged the gunman, striking him several times and forcing him to break off his attack on the other patrons. As a result of redirecting the suspect's gunfire to himself, Officer Devitte sustained several severe gunshot wounds."

This is from the commendation for the medal of valor awarded to Officer Dennis Devitte. It doesn't tell that gunman Emilio Rodriguez died and one of his suspected buddies, Manuel Tarango Jr., escaped and is now in Mexico. A grand jury charges Tarango with second-degree murder, burglary, attempted robbery, battery and attempted murder. So is he hiding out in Mexico's hills? No, according to his family, he's safe and attending college in Mexico City.

Just add Tarango to a long list of people charged with murder, rape and other serious felonies who have left Nevada for the safety of Mexico. There are at least a dozen homicide suspects who have fled from here over the border during the last three years. U.S. State Department and other diplomatic propaganda about the new cooperation with Mexican law authorities is just baloney no matter how it's sliced.

All of the efforts to make the North American Free Trade Agreement work and our war on drugs have no effective results when it comes to law enforcement cooperation. The diplomats try to put a sweet face on an ugly situation, which continues to exist and even worsens.

Homicide detective Jimmy Vaccaro says that Metro had Las Vegas murder suspect Margaret Rudin located in Mexico long before she was apprehended in Massachusetts. Despite the fact she is an American citizen, the Mexican police made impossible demands before they would consider picking her up. If they did arrest her, they said they would hold a trial and if she were found guilty then they would return her.

This foot-dragging must infuriate local law enforcement officials, who pride themselves on their professionalism. After all, Metro Lt. Wayne Petersen's homicide section has an excellent 70 percent success rate solving local homicides. This is amazing considering the number of tourists and other visitors rotating through town.

Meanwhile, almost two years have passed since 16-year-old Joey Cornell was gunned down. The suspect? Gonzalo Hernandez-Villalobos, age 39, now living in Mexico.

Reviewing the killing of Joey Cornell brings back memories of 16-year-old Maria Estella De Lamore, a Bonanza High School student shot in the face with a .357-caliber Magnum pistol. That was about eight years ago, and her suspected killer, Guillermo Adrian Tena-Castillas, a 20-year-old, fled across the border. He was located on a ranch in Chihuahua and is still in Mexico.

So there's a long history of Mexico giving refuge to killers. At one time the border town of Juarez, Mexico, wasn't a safe haven for fleeing killers. That was before the criminals running that city and state of Chihuahua killed the former comandante of police, Jose Refugio "Cuco" Rubalcava, and his two sons. Cuco was the man who snagged the killer of FBI agent John Bailey, brought him back across the border and then came to Las Vegas to testify for the prosecution.

What is beyond me is the kind of thinking that goes on in the minds of law enforcement people across the border. It can't be a matter of heritage or pride because a vast majority of the people left dead north of the border are also Latins. Certainly the Mexicans don't honestly believe that escaped killers are an asset to their own society. So what is it -- money, laziness or just general legal corruption?

If Manuel Tarango Jr. is, as his relatives report, attending college in Mexico, he may find a future in Mexico's law enforcement ranks. In the meantime our own federal officials, from the White House on down, should become actively involved in forcing this issue with a list of the suspected killers they want returned.

This kind of action is expecting too much from our own officials and diplomats. They evidently believe they have more important things to do and think about. Personally, I believe the young lives of Joey Cornell and Maria Estella De Lamore were much more important than our already failing diplomacy and the federal officials and diplomats promoting it.