Conviction in Illegal-Alien Kidnap Case Overturned

A state appeal court has reversed the conviction of a Los Angeles man serving two concurrent life terms for the kidnaping of two young boys that lasted 30 minutes and caused no physical harm.

Jose Arnulfo Jaramillo was improperly convicted in October, 1985, because his attorney was deprived of the right to question the woman accusing him, the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles ruled. The woman failed to appear at the trial.

Jaramillo allegedly took the woman’s sons, ages 7 and 5, because she could not pay the price he demanded for smuggling the family across the border from Mexico and driving them to San Fernando. He denied at his trial that he brought them across the border and said he merely took the boys out to eat while their mother made a telephone call.

The mother moved to San Jose after the incident but left for Mexico before the trial and, en route, was taken into custody by U. S. immigration agents and deported, relatives told police.

“She didn’t want to come to court,” said Paul Enright, Jaramillo’s trial attorney. “That’s not a good enough reason to not appear.” Anyway, “the case wasn’t worth life in the first place,” he said, referring to the sentence.

Pasadena Juvenile Court Judge Vickye Mitchell, who prosecuted the case when she was a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, complained that the ruling bolsters the feeling among illegal aliens that reporting crimes is futile.

Angelina Orosco testified at a preliminary hearing that she hired Jaramillo in Tijuana to take the family past the San Clemente immigration checkpoint in the trunk of his car. They agreed on a price of $600, but Jaramillo demanded $300 more when they reached San Fernando, she testified.

When she could not raise the extra cash, Jaramillo left with the boys, threatening to drive them back to Tijuana, she testified. She called police, and he was arrested 30 minutes later as he drove through the neighborhood with the boys in the back seat of his car.

Two weeks before the trial, Orosco disappeared. She had told San Fernando Police Detective Ernesto Halcon that she was returning to Mexico to care for a sick relative, according to court documents. Halcon said he tried to persuade her to remain for the trial.

At Jaramillo’s trial, Superior Court Judge David D. Perez allowed the admission of a written record of Orosco’s testimony from the hearing. The appeal court ruled Wednesday that that was an error and held police responsible for her failure to appear.

“The prosecution had only one witness who could establish the extortion--Ms. Orosco,” and the detective should have subpoenaed her as soon as he learned her travel plans, the court ruled.

Jaramillo was first charged with kidnaping, which carries a term of seven years, but was convicted of kidnaping for the purpose of extortion, which carries a life term.

Jaramillo, who is still in prison, could face a new trial on the lesser kidnaping charge, Enright said.