Texas Briefly
Man pleads guilty to strangling 3 women to death in Dallas
DALLAS (AP) — A man who fled to Mexico 18 years ago after being released on bond in Dallas has been sentenced to life in prison in the strangulation deaths of three women, prosecutors said Thursday.
Jose Sifuentes, 43, pleaded guilty to three murder charges, the Dallas County district attorney’s office said. Prosecutors said that as part of a plea agreement, he's been given three life sentences, which will run concurrently.
Prosecutors said Sifuentes was linked by DNA to the rapes and killings of Veronica Hernandez, 27, Maria de Lourdes Perales, 20, and Erica Olivia Hernandez, 23. They say he met his victims in bars and clubs.
In May 2003, Sifuentes was arrested on a murder charge in the death of Veronica Hernandez, whose body was found in a mechanic shop where he worked. After spending two months in jail, he posted bond and fled. He was indicted after leaving, prosecutors said.
Sifuentes was extradited back from Mexico last year.
Prosecutors said DNA collected at the time of the 2003 arrest later linked Sifuentes to the slayings of Perales and Erica Hernandez in 1998. Perales' body was found in a neighborhood in February 1998. Erica Hernandez's body was found on a construction site about four months later.
Ex-Border agent admits illegally bringing woman into US
LAREDO (AP) — A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Texas has pleaded guilty to illegally bringing a Mexican woman into the U.S. to work as her nanny, according to federal court documents.
Rhonda Lee Walker, 40, of Laredo, admitted in a signed plea agreement Friday in U.S. District Court in Laredo to conspiring to bring the woman into the country.
Walker was a Customs and Border Protection officer on Jan. 2 when she used another officer’s computer login information to help the woman enter the United States through the Laredo Port of Entry, acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Lowery said in a statement.
In exchange for the plea, federal prosecutors said felony counts of illegally transporting the woman into the U.S. and lying to investigators will be dismissed.“Walker intended for the woman to illegally enter the country and work for her as a housekeeper and nanny,” Lowery said. “Walker also lied to authorities. She falsely stated Trevino was her biological aunt and denied processing her entry or employing her in her home.”
Walker faces up to 10 years in prison with sentencing scheduled for August 9.
