Youth Charged With Murder in Deadly Chase

Prosecutors filed murder charges Thursday against a youth who was allegedly driving a stolen vehicle carrying illegal immigrants that struck and killed five people in front of a Temecula high school while fleeing from the Border Patrol.

The youth, a suspected smuggler of illegal immigrants who is believed to be from Mexico, will be arraigned on five counts of murder in Riverside County Juvenile Court today. But investigators are still trying to verify his claim that he is 16 years old and may seek to have him tried as an adult, authorities said.

Gene McNary, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, announced Thursday that he has dispatched the recently appointed head of the INS’ internal affairs department to investigate the accident.

Also, McNary will meet next week with two Republican congressmen who have demanded that he justify the value of the Border Patrol’s checkpoint on Interstate 15 near Temecula, where Tuesday’s chase began, as well as the busier San Onofre checkpoint on Interstate 5.

One of the congressmen, Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), said Thursday that the crash has become a “watershed” in the often controversial history of the freeway checkpoints and the chases and fatal accidents they have generated. The Border Patrol must prove why the “second front” constituted by the checkpoints should not be eliminated and the agents and resources transferred to the border, Packard said in a telephone interview.

“Eliminating the checkpoints would eliminate the problems,” said Packard, usually a strong supporter of the INS. “A lot of people in the cities south of the checkpoints are annoyed at having to stop, slow down or be checked. They feel it’s un-American. They feel they shouldn’t be victims of the problem of illegal aliens. . . . Five lives have been lost, five innocent lives.”

Packard also said he feels that an “objective third party,” perhaps a panel of police officials from the cities near the checkpoints, should investigate the accident and the questions concerning Border Patrol checkpoints and chases.

Investigators have had trouble determining the identities of the 12 illegal immigrants in the stolen Chevrolet Suburban involved in Tuesday’s collision because many lacked identification documents or initially gave false names, said Craig Datig, Riverside County supervising deputy district attorney.

Five of the truck’s passengers remain hospitalized. One man in very critical condition at Riverside General Hospital has been tentatively identified as Enciforo Vargas Gomez, 21.

Investigators for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and the INS are reviewing possible further criminal charges against the alleged driver and the other men.

INS Commissioner McNary has already sent his director of internal investigations, Jack Chase, to California to head an inquiry. Chase probably will also join in a review of Border Patrol pursuit policies that had already begun before the Temecula accident, officials said.

“By sending my special (representative) to California to conduct an inquiry we hope to learn exactly what happened and determine if any actions can be taken to ensure that such a tragedy never recurs,” McNary said. “On behalf of the entire INS, I express my condolences to the community and all of those who lost friends and loved ones in the accident.”

The Border Patrol canceled a meeting scheduled for Thursday between agency officials and Temecula city leaders. A spokesman said the Border Patrol felt the meeting should be postponed until internal INS and local investigations are completed.

Friends of one of the victims’ families say they want to compel the formation of a citizen review board to monitor the activities of the INS and the Border Patrol.

“If they’re going to infiltrate our city, and endanger our citizens, our children, then we have the right to monitor that,” said Elia Esparza, publisher of El Remate, a Spanish-language shopper in Temecula.

One of Esparza’s employees--and cousin--is Gloria Murillo, who lost two of her four children in the crash. Jose and Gloria Murillo were walking to Temecula Valley High School Tuesday morning when the truck crashed through the intersection, killing them after first shearing in half the car containing John Davis, 46, his son Todd Davis, 17, and a Davis family friend, Monisa Emilio, 14.

The elder Murillo went to the scene to cover the crash for her newspaper--only to discover that her 16-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter were among the victims.

The wife of John Davis and mother of Todd also blames the Border Patrol for their deaths, a family spokesman said. Dan Gould said Linda Davis’ mourning is turning to anger toward the Border Patrol’s chase policies. “That’s the bottom line: When will these chases end?”

Border Patrol officials have maintained that the pursuing agents acted properly and attempted to curtail the chase by slowing down shortly before the crash several miles northeast of the checkpoint on I-15, officials said.

The fleeing vehicle was going more than 70 m.p.h. when it ran a red light and hit the Davis sedan.

Although the INS does not have precise statistics, at least 25 people have died in chase-related accidents involving the Border Patrol around California since 1980. Criticism of the Temecula checkpoint comes after years in which San Clemente residents and leaders expressed concerns about accidents that stemmed from the San Onofre checkpoint.

Because the Temecula crash killed five passersby, four of them teen-agers, the angry public reaction has battered the already shaky image and morale of the INS. Election-year pressures on the Bush Administration have worsened matters.

McNary has directed his staff to provide statistics and other data on the checkpoints requested by Reps. Packard and Al McAndless (R-Riverside).

Despite his concerns, Packard also said the checkpoints have proved valuable in deterring stolen vehicles, drugs and illegal immigrants. He said the Border Patrol should consider calling off high-speed chases that leave freeways, instead using barriers and other equipment to deter chases.

A new $20-million San Onofre freeway checkpoint to be built south of the current location would solve many safety problems by providing gates and more lanes, INS officials say.

The station at the Temecula checkpoint has 77 agents and made 22,517 arrests last year, the Border Patrol said. The I-5 station has 93 agents and made 67,495 apprehensions during the same period.

INS investigators are working with Riverside County deputies to determine the exact relationship of the driver to two other passengers who are believed to have been involved in the smuggling operation and possibly the theft of the truck. Smugglers often use juveniles to drive “load” cars north from the border because they know that juvenile laws are more lenient, officials said.

Times staff writer Tom Gorman contributed to this report.

FAMILIES GRIEVE: B2