Sonia Montaño finds it unacceptable that a medical condition kept the man accused of killing her brother from being in custody for months.
“We heard he (the suspect) was out in the streets in El Centro on Nov. 4,” said Montaño, referring to Jesus Felipe Ceseña, who according to court documents is accused of stabbing and killing Rey Montaño Jr. on Aug. 26.
But Ceseña, who police said had fathered a child with the victim’s girlfriend, was in custody after his arrest in October for about a week.
Although Superior Court Judge Ruth Bermudez-Montenegro ordered Ceseña to be remanded to custody Dec. 6, court documents show Ceseña was released “on his own recognizance” Oct. 18 due to “several medical conditions.”
It’s unclear when Ceseña’s warrant will be served. However, court documents from Dec. 6 state Ceseña was suffering from “a severe heart condition.” This medical condition, court documents say, kept Ceseña from being booked into county jail as he was released from custody so he could obtain medical attention at University of California San Diego Medical Center.
The decision to release Ceseña on his own recognizance angered the Montaño family, and since then Sonia Montaño and her father, Rey Montaño Sr., have approached various agencies and met with county and city officials including Sheriff Ray Loera, District Attorney Gilbert Otero and his deputies Sid Hester and Deborah Owen, as well as El Centro police commanders and sergeants to vent their concerns and push for Ceseña’s remanding.
“Even though he (Ceseña) had a bail of $1 million and was a flight risk … (while) in violation of probation, and considered armed and dangerous, he was still released on his own recognizance,” said Sonia Montaño, who added that the serious nature of the alleged crime should be sufficient to keep the suspect incarcerated as he awaits for trial.
The crime
The stabbing that killed Montaño Jr. occurred near Seventh Street and Woodward Avenue around 12:30 p.m. Aug. 26.
According to El Centro police, the victim was walking in the 700 block of Woodward when he was stabbed. When police found Montaño Jr., he was collapsed on the sidewalk, with a stab wound to the upper torso, according to authorities.
The 30-year-old was treated by emergency personnel and transported to El Centro Regional Medical Center, but died shortly after arrival in the emergency room, police said in August.
“Ever since then our family has been going through a tremendous crisis,” said Sonia Montaño, “not to mention that it took law enforcement (some) 44 days to arrest Jesus Ceseña.”
Armed and dangerous
After the stabbing, El Centro police identified Ceseña as a murder suspect, considered him armed and dangerous and called for the public’s help to find Ceseña.
A manhunt lasting more than a month and a half followed and ended with a multiagency operation and the raiding of at least two residences on the night of Oct. 11. Ceseña was found by El Centro detectives hiding inside a closet in an apartment near the 600 block of Commercial Avenue. He offered slight resistance before being taken into custody, according to authorities.
A questionable record
Ceseña has a long record with authorities and the courts. In 2007, Ceseña was accused of corporal injury to spouse, court documents show, and in 2008 he was accused of exhibiting a deadly weapon. Both cases list Melissa Rosas as the victim. Moreover, in 2011 Ceseña was accused of transporting and possessing methamphetamines for sale and again for corporal injury to spouse, according to two separate court documents, which point the victim in the later case was again Melissa Rosas.
Rosas, the Montaño family has revealed, was the victim’s fiancé.
On his own recognizance
Despite Ceseña’s questionable record and his previous condition as a sought suspect who evaded police, Ceseña was released on his own recognizance under California Penal Code Section 4015, according to Deputy District Attorney Deborah Owen. This means a person accused of a crime is out of custody while awaiting trial, without posting bail.
This penal code, Owen explained, says the Legislature’s intent is “to ensure that the cost (associated) with providing medical care to an arrested person are borne by the arrested person’s medical insurance … so you can see what they are trying to do.”
She added the DA’s office has “no control over the jail,” and that whether to accept the suspect or not was determined by the Sheriff’s Office “and they have a valid reason for it.” However, “within the last couple of weeks,” Owen said, the DA’s office was told by the victim’s family that Ceseña wasn’t in the hospital. The information was confirmed “within the last week,” said Owen in an interview Tuesday; “so that’s why we asked the court to issue a warrant for him.”
A pending warrant
According to Dec. 6 court documents, Senior Deputy County Counsel Geoff Holbrook represented the county Sheriff’s Department and objected to the defendant being housed in county jail “due to the defendant’s medical issues.” He also indicated the jail lacks the accommodations to treat the defendant.
The court, however, found the severity of the offense as a good cause to take custody of the accused, and determined a hearing date to be scheduled upon the defendant’s arrest. Furthermore, a $1 million bench warrant was issued.
But Ceseña “was obviously not in court,” said El Centro police Cmdr. Jeff Mason, adding, “had he been in court, he’d be taken into custody immediately.”
Mason agreed with Owen that the Sheriff’s Office “has the authority to regulate who comes into their facility … that’s my understanding on how that works.” He added that as far as the suspect being released on his own recognizance, police don’t have to “necessarily keep tabs” on the accused.
When asked if he feared that the suspect could decide not to make himself available to police, Mason said, “In this instance, our concern for that is heightened again, because the grievous nature of the crime, but we have made investigative efforts to do our best to keep tabs on him. We can’t say specifically where he is every moment of every day, but we have in place help, if you will, that keeps track of things like that for us.”
In an interview Wednesday, Mason said El Centro police knows Ceseña is out of the county and said that if Ceseña didn’t make himself available to police, “we can put some resources into play that I think and I hope would get him into custody in a very short (order).”
Mason didn’t specify what resources police have available to ensure Ceseña’s warrant can be served, but he did say detectives are in contact with the victim’s family as well as Ceseña’s family.
Pointing fingers
While Mason and Owen suggested the Sheriff’s Office determines who comes into county jail, Sheriff Ray Loera noted otherwise.
“We don’t make the decision,” Loera said, “that’s got to be done by the arresting agency, and the DA and the judge.”
Loera also said that “in general, when we’ve had people that have had medical conditions, they discuss that with the arresting agency (El Centro police) and the District Attorney’s Office.”
Loera, who in an interview earlier this week explained he wasn’t aware of the Dec. 6 hearing, said his assumption was that the cost to keep Ceseña at the county jail in October “was substantial.” Loera also said that “in general … we don’t have the facilities in this jail to hold someone for a very serious situation, so we would have to make arrangements to have (him) put somewhere else, and ultimately that has to be taken in consideration by the arresting agency.”
He acknowledged, however, that “if a judge tells us that we have to take someone, we will have to abide (by) whatever order the judge gives us.”
And yet for Sonia Montaño, the notion of Ceseña being remanded isn’t necessarily a consolation as she still expressed deep discontent with the law, officials and the system.
She added that for her, it wasn’t only the Sheriff’s Office that was at fault.
“It’s everybody’s (fault) because they are all the ones that should be enforcing the law; a judge should be able to make the right decision not to release (an alleged) killer,” she said.
Her father, however, said in Spanish, “I’m calmer now hoping that justice will be served at last.”
“(Because) we just want justice, nothing else,” Mr. Montaño said.
Staff Writer Alejandro Davila can be reached at 760-337-3445 or adavila@ivpressonline.com
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