The suspect in a fatal hit-and-run in Denver, CO last week, Juan Sanchez, was a Mexican illegal immigrant previously deported not once, but SIX times, according to ICE.
Sanchez killed a 51-year-old Native American grandmother, Annette Conquering Bear, who was walking home from the supermarket with her husband the afternoon of Dec. 17, just days before her 52nd birthday on Dec. 19.
Along with having been deported 6 times in the past two decades, Sanchez has been arrested three previous times for driving under the influence.
Local Denver news station 9 News has more details on the hit and run:
The Mexican national now formally charged with last week’s fatal hit-and-run at the intersection of West Colfax Avenue and Zenobia Street had been deported six times in the last two decades, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
In addition, four days prior to the hit-and-run death of 51-year-old Annette Conquering Bear, 9Wants to Know has learned Gilpin County Sheriff’s deputies allowed a reportedly combative Juan Sanchez to leave the county’s jail just hours after Black Hawk police arrested Sanchez on suspicion of DUI while driving a friend’s SUV.
Days later, Denver Police believe Sanchez – driving the same borrowed SUV that police in Black Hawk said Sanchez was driving when arrested on suspicion of DUI – struck and killed Conquering Bear as she was walking home from an errand at a nearby Walgreens.
Denver prosecutors formally charged Sanchez Monday with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. A jail log indicates Sanchez’s bond is $500,000.
Late last week, ICE officials confirmed to 9Wants to Know that Sanchez is currently living in the country illegally. Monday, in a written statement, ICE provided more detail about Sanchez’s past run-ins with immigration officials.
In the statement, ICE said Sanchez (who they refer to as Juan Sanchez-Martin) had been removed from the United States twice in 2002, three times in 2008 and once in 2012.
“Sanchez is an ICE enforcement priority,” the statement reads.
ICE has asked the Denver Sheriff Department for a detainer request on Sanchez should he come up with the money to bond out of the downtown Denver jail.
Daily Mail also had the following to say:
An undocumented immigrant was arrested on Saturday for the alleged fatal hit-and-run of a grandmother in Denver.
Annette Conquering Bear, a mother-of-six who was due to celebrate her 52nd birthday December 19, was walking home from the supermarket with her husband when Mexican national Juan Sánchez struck her with a SUV he had borrowed the afternoon of December 17.
The 2007 GMC Sierra was abandoned by Sánchez down the road and traced to a friend, who identified him to police investigators.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] confirmed to DailyMail.com that Sánchez was deported six times during the last two decades. His first two deportations took place in 2002. ICE also deported him three times in 2008 and once again in 2012.
The 42-year-old suspect was also arrested three times for driving under the influence of alcohol in Adams County, Colorado [2000]; Denver [2001]; and Seattle, Washington [2002)].
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