Illegal Alien charged with Murder 1 - In Your Backyard!

[Read down to the part in red. This man was an Illegal Alien Fugitive, and this happened in YOUR BACK YARD! The Washington Post is giving this guy the benefit of the doubt??!!]

Md. Man Charged In Home InvasionsElectrician Also Faces Murder Count

By Dan MorseWashington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, October 18, 2008; B01

Montgomery County police have charged a Hyattsville electrician with first-degree murder and five counts of robbery in connection with a rash of home invasions going back 13 months that terrified many older residents.

Jose Juan Garcia-Perlera, 33, of the 5800 block of 32nd Avenue was being held without bond yesterday in the county jail. Police say he broke into five Montgomery homes, from Potomac to Chevy Chase, and tied up occupants ages 63 to 92. He is also a suspect in a home invasion in the Foxhall area of the District, police said.

Garcia-Perlera is charged with killing the 63-year-old, Mary Havenstein, who lived alone on Seven Locks Road. She was discovered Sept. 4 by a relative who came to pick her up for a medical appointment.

The Salvadoran immigrant is not a U.S. citizen and is also wanted by immigration officials, law enforcement officials said yesterday. His immigration status wasn't clear.

Detectives linked Garcia-Perlera to the crimes through DNA, stolen items found at his home and a laptop computer that police say was taken from yet another house in Montgomery, said Montgomery Police Chief J. Thomas Manger.

"This guy was a prolific thief," Manger said.

Law enforcement sources said that Garcia-Perlera didn't always take things of great value, sometimes leaving with "trinkets," and in at least two cases stole bottles of wine and alcohol. Two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the case said Garcia-Perlera's exact motives for the break-ins have been difficult to establish. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation remains open.

Police said the assailant once cut phone lines to a house and disabled lights at circuit boxes twice.
Authorities have not said how Havenstein died. Victims in the other home invasions were not critically hurt. But one 78-year-old Potomac woman was left bound for two days before a relative found her. Another, a 77-year-old woman who lives in Chevy Chase, said she told the intruder her knees hurt from arthritis, and he loosened the clothesline binding her legs.
In an interview yesterday, she said she was very happy to hear about the arrest. "I was concerned someone else was going to get hurt," said the woman, who asked not to be named to protect her privacy and safety. "I just feel lucky."

Lt. Paul Starks, a Montgomery police spokesman, said investigators were worried that the level of violence in the home invasions was escalating. "That was the fear," he said.
The crimes spurred concern across Montgomery, with residents attending a series of police-led community meetings to hear updates on the case and get home safety recommendations.
The first invasion occurred Sept. 17, 2007, when the 92-year-old was robbed inside her home in Bethesda. Police said the assailant struck again in November, February, May and September.
On Aug. 28, they said, a home in the 8800 block of Seven Locks Road was burglarized -- a crime not immediately linked to the home invasions. This week, they said, a stolen laptop computer tied Garcia-Perlera to that break-in, and they were able to get a search warrant for his home in Hyattsville.

They said they found him at home, along with items taken from three of the invaded houses, including Havenstein's. Police said investigators eventually took a DNA sample from Garcia-Perlera and linked it to DNA found at three of the crime scenes.
Among other clues in the case, police said, was a backpack found at a home and possibly linked to the assailant. It was stolen five years ago from the 3700 block of Harrison Street in Northwest Washington.

When the assailant broke into homes, police said previously, he asked for a variety of items, including cash and gold, and took his time looking wherever he wanted.
"Despite the arrest of the individual involved in these cases," Manger said, "community members should not become complacent and stop following good crime-prevention practices. Continuing to lock doors and windows, watching for suspicious activity in your neighborhoods and calling the police when you know that a crime has occurred will reduce crime and many times even prevent it."