Killer slipped through the cracks

This is the third-day story following the murder of Suzanna Jaramillo by Gustavo Tellez, who later committed suicide.

Tellez was a illegal alien with a criminal record that stretched back to 1991. Among his crimes: Assault with a deadly weapon, spousal abuse, resisting arrest and possession of narcotics. Additionally, Tellez had been deported four times by agents with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Here's the story:

WHITTIER - Whittier police responding to a domestic dispute in 2006 routinely consulted a national criminal database to see whether Gustavo Tellez or Suzanna Jaramillo were subject to arrest warrants or immigration hold.

The checks came back clean, though Tellez - a convicted felon - was in the country illegally after being deported four times by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

And, he presented a valid California driver's license, officials said Wednesday.

Tellez on Monday killed Jaramillo and then fatally shot himself in a Whittier apartment.

"I guarantee if this guy had a warrant or anything from ICE in that file in '06 he would have gone to jail," said Whittier police Chief David Singer.

Information about an ICE hold on Tellez should have been added to a database file maintained by the National Crime Information Center, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said, adding she was uncertain whether a routine background check would have revealed Tellez's history.

"A lot of times there's no hit on first entry," Kice said. "There are tens of thousands of offenders like this in the system and even the more egregious are sometimes overlooked."

Tellez, 35, had a criminal history that stretches back to the early 1990s. He had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, spousal abuse and drug possession among other offenses. He lived with Jaramillo, 32, in an apartment in the 7600 block of Newlin Avenue.

Orange

County CHP officers cited Tellez in July and December 2007 for speeding, according to court records.

Like most agencies, neither the CHP nor Whittier police run extensive criminal background checks until they have arrested someone.

"If we run somebody and they come back as a felon subject to deportation, at the very least we're going to (take a report) and contact ICE. We don't just give them a revolving door," Whittier police spokesman Jason Zuhlke said. "A lot of times on these domestics you see it's a genuine couple that had a verbal argument and that's it."

Anything more than a routine warrant check is unlikely, he said.

In 2001, Tellez was deported for the first time. That same year federal agents arrested Tellez, and he was sentenced to 60 months for "felony re-entry," Kice said.

Kice said Tellez appealed his first deportation order in 2001. He lost the appeal and was deported to Mexico in 2004.

In February 2005, ICE agents found Tellez in the Ventura County jail serving time for drug possession and resisting arrest, according to officials and court records. He was deported, that time, from Los Angeles County Jail.

Days after the deportation, Tellez was caught trying to cross back into the United States at San Ysidro, south of San Diego, Kice said.

"That's the last record we have of him," she said. "This is a man who did not have any regard for our borders or our laws."

The bodies of Tellez and Jaramillo, 32, were found by a friend Monday, police said.

Investigators believe Tellez fatally shot Jaramillo before shooting himself, Zuhlke said.

frank.girardot@ sgvn.com

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http://www.insidesocal.com/sgvcrime