Killings Ignite Criticism of Jail Releases

As he was being hauled to jail for spousal abuse, Humberto Huelitl vowed to return to kill his 16-year-old, pregnant wife.

On Thursday, he made good on his promise.

After serving only five days of a 30-day sentence--hardly the cooling-off period that the judge had ordered--Huelitl gunned down his wife, Veronica Daniel, and her 2-year-old cousin before killing himself outside their Rowland Heights apartment.

At a time when jail space is at a premium and misdemeanor offenders are routinely set free early, the series of events in the Huelitl case shows how easily potentially violent criminals can slip through the grasp of an overtaxed justice system.

Veronica Daniel had obtained a temporary restraining order against Huelitl, but that expired while he was in jail. Then, without the knowledge of the judge who sentenced him, Huelitl, 22, was let go as part of the Sheriff’s Department’s early-release program.

“It’s devastating,” said Los Angeles County Municipal Judge Dan Oki, who sentenced Huelitl on March 27.

“He wasn’t supposed to be released until he served 30 days,” Oki said Friday. “It was my understanding domestic violence offenders would spend a longer time in custody than other misdemeanors.”

But Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said Oki should have known about their policy to let those convicted of misdemeanors go after serving only a third--or far less--of their sentences, all in an effort to ease overcrowding.

“Our early-release program is nothing new,” Chief Mark Squiers said. “There should be no misimpression.”

The number of early releases has increased in recent years because of budget cuts. The Sheriff’s Department has been forced to close four jails since 1993, losing thousands of spaces for inmates. And the state’s “three-strikes” legislation has exacerbated the problem because many felons are spending months more in County Jail, demanding trials rather than entering pleas.

One partial solution sits empty next to the county’s main jail: the 4,000-bed Twin Towers facility. The $373-million structure was recently completed, but the county says it does not have the money to open it.

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Angered by the fatal shootings, two Los Angeles City Council members Friday called on the state to give the county the money it needs to open more jails.

“I’m furious about this,” said Councilman Marvin Braude, who helped form a committee against domestic violence. “This guy was put in jail only five days? Hell, that’s tokenism. That’s a vacation for this guy.

“We need to keep these jails open so we don’t release these kinds of people. When you get the combination of readily available firearms, this is a recipe for disaster.”

Added Councilwoman Laura Chick: “The system is broken, it’s crippled. . . . We just open the door and say, ‘See you later, dude.’ That poor woman didn’t even have the time and the wherewithal to get herself to a safe place.”

On March 25, Huelitl showed up drunk at the apartment that he shared with his wife and several relatives, according to police reports. Huelitl kicked his wife four times on the left calf with hard-soled shoes. Then he pushed her backward onto the couch, climbed on top of her and bit her on the left upper cheek, leaving a 3-inch welt.

According to deputies, who were called to the apartment to break up the fight, Huelitl said he was “only playing when I bit her.”

At first his wife, who was three months pregnant, wanted him prosecuted, saying that she feared for her safety, police reports said. A court commissioner issued an immediate five-day emergency protection order, and deputies gave Daniel domestic violence pamphlets advising where she could go for help.

But the next day, she recanted her story.

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“I was playing around with my husband Humberto Huelitl,” she told deputies in a written statement. “My mother thought that we were fighting and called the Sheriff’s Department. We were only playing around. He hit me hard, but just playing.”

On March 27, Huelitl pleaded no contest to a charge of spousal abuse and was sentenced to 150 days in jail--120 of them suspended--and placed on three years summary probation. He also was directed to undergo a year of domestic violence counseling.

From jail, Huelitl called his wife and told her that he planned to kill her, family members said. Neighbors also heard him yell the same death threat when police took him to jail last week after an arrest that ended 15 days of continuous fighting, said Reyna Daniel, Veronica Daniel’s mother.

“He would get drunk, and he would beat her,” she said. “He threatened her.”

But Reyna Daniel said the family never expected Huelitl to follow through on the threats.

Veronica Daniel was 15 when she met Huelitl at a party in Mexico, where both were living at the time. Huelitl was a belligerent, jealous boyfriend, but Daniel fell in love with him, her mother said.

Reyna Daniel moved to the United States more than a year ago, while her daughter stayed behind with relatives to finish high school. So the mother did not meet Huelitl until she and several of the girl’s uncles traveled to Mexico for the young couple’s wedding.

“I didn’t like him,” Reyna Daniel said. “He was violent. He used to beat her up, even when they were in Mexico.”

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Six months ago, the couple left Mexico and moved into the tiny Rowland Heights apartment shared by the girl’s mother, cousins and uncles. Huelitl got a job washing dishes at a local restaurant, but Daniel stayed at home.

Huelitl’s violence angered and terrified the family, and Reyna Daniel said she often confronted her son-in-law about his temper.

“I told him that they would both be happier if they separated,” Daniel said. “But he told me that she was his wife, and he could do whatever he wanted to her. He told me to stop interfering with his life.”

Cupping her head in her hands, Daniel said her daughter confided that she wanted to leave Huelitl.

“But she told me she was scared of him,” the mother said. “She told me that he said, ‘If you want to get separated, I’ll kill you.’ ”

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Thursday afternoon, he showed up at the apartment with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Veronica Daniel barricaded herself and her young cousin, Betito Hernandez, in a rear bedroom of the apartment, but Huelitl fired through the door, killing the child.

Daniel crawled through the first-floor window, but Huelitl pursued her, gunning her down as she begged for her life, officials said. He then turned the gun on himself. Two other relatives who were injured in the attack were treated at a nearby hospital and released .

On Friday, workers hammered and drilled in front of the apartment, replacing the front window and bedroom door that Huelitl destroyed in his rampage. A man who did not know the family knelt outside the apartment and placed flowers on the spot where Veronica Daniel died.

“When it is a guy shooting another guy, that’s one thing,” said Art Bojorquez, who lives a few blocks away from the apartment. “But when it’s his expectant young wife, that’s something different.”

Times staff writer Eric Lichtblau and correspondent Richard Winton contributed to this story.