Tancredo Presses Ronnie Earle on Illegal Alien Murder Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) wrote a letter to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle demanding that he explain why his office did not prosecute an accused child molester and failed to report his presence to immigration authorities even though the suspect had been deported previously.

Several years ago, David Diaz Morales was deported to Mexico because he was in the U.S. illegally. Some time later, Morales left Mexico and again entered the U.S. illegally, ending up in Texas where he resided with a relative. Morales was arrested for suspected child molestation, but the district attorney for the area, Ronnie Earle, failed to prosecute him and even refused to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement, despite Morales’ prior deportation.

On January 26, 2004, Morales brutally raped and murdered a co-worker with a butcher’s knife. The victim, Jenny Garcia Hayden, was 18 years old and had known Morales through their mutual employment at the International House of Pancakes. Earle charged Morales with both molestation and murder, even though Earle had declined to prosecute the prior alleged crime. In July, Morales pleaded guilty to the murder and related charges, and is now serving a 55-year sentence.

“Why did Ronnie Earle refuse to prosecute Morales when he was accused of child molestation? At minimum, Earle was derelict in his duty to contact ICE notifying them that Morales was an illegal alien. Sadly, if Earle had contacted ICE, Jenny Garcia Hayden might be alive today,” said Tancredo.

In addition to Earle’s failure to contact ICE and to prosecute the alleged crime, the City of Austin has an illegal alien sanctuary policy that may have contributed to Morales’ continued presence in the U.S. The Austin Police Department’s procedures manual discourages the transfer of immigration information to federal authorities despite federal law which states, a “government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.” On Friday, the parents of the victim filed a complaint in U.S. District Court against the Austin Police Department regarding its illegal alien sanctuary policy.