Even after Governor Newsom ends executions in CA, @sccgov District Atty’s office may seek death penalty for suspect Carlos Arevalo Carranza, charged with murder of #SanJose resident Bambi Larson with special circumstances (burglary & mayhem). #abc7now pic.twitter.com/IbE2oJLJm4 — David Louie (@abc7david) March 14, 2019 SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- 24-year-old Carlos Arevalo-Carranza is being arraigned in Santa Clara County Superior Court Thursday afternoon for one count of homicide in the brutal murder of San Jose resident, 59-year-old Bambi Larson, inside her home on Knollfield Way exactly two weeks ago.Ms. Larson suffered "extensive and deep" wounds "consistent with a cutting tool," according to court documents.The documents also cited evidence of blunt force trauma.When Arevalo-Carranza was arrested by San Jose Police on Monday, he was in possession of a seven-inch folding knife.Bloody shoe prints found at Larson residence matched the tread of the boots Arevalo-Carranza was wearing when arrested, according to the court documents.Police say he also was in possession of the victim's tablet and cell phone.He was arrested multiple times in San Jose since 2014 on charges of possession of methamphetamine, false imprisonment, prowling and battery on a police officer.ICE says it has filed detainer requests seven times with Santa Clara County, but they were ignored due to county policy.The court documents do not detail how Arevalo-Carranza entered the Larson house early on February 28.A family member and a co-worker told police they found the back door open when they went to check on Ms. Larson when she did not report for work that morning.Police obtained security video from three cameras. One video showed a man wearing a backpack and looking "back several times in the direction of the victim's residence. "Another video showed a man discarding articles of his clothing. Police Chief Eddie Garcia earlier this week said a discarded t-shirt had DNA belonging to Ms. Larson and Arevalo-Carranza.We'll have more on this developing story on ABC7 News at 5:00 and 6:00 pm.<doc-sep>SAN JOSE (KPIX) — South Bay leaders are squaring off after a recent San Jose murder case has officials taking sides over Santa Clara County’s immigration policy. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is the latest city leader to say it may be time to cooperate with ICE in order to help keep dangerous criminals off the streets. ALSO READ: Liccardo’s suggestion that the county should re-think its policy of non-cooperation with federal immigration officials met a swift and emotional backlash at Tuesday’s city council meeting. “I’m just going to say I felt a little bit of a betrayal,” said councilmember Magdalena Carrasco, who questioned the mayor’s support of the city’s immigrant communities. Liccardo says he was prompted to speak out about the county’s policy in the aftermath of the brutal murder of Bambi Larson in her South San Jose home. Within days, police arrested transient Carlos Arevalo-Carranza for Larson’s death. Authorities revealed the suspect had been arrested nearly a dozen times while living in the country illegally for the past six years. “We can best protect our law-abiding immigrant communities — and the rest of our city — by cooperating with other agencies to prevent predatory felons from threatening the safety of our community,” Mayor Liccardo wrote in a prepared statement. Liccardo said it would a common sense, practical and legal policy to simply allow the Sheriff’s office to “pick up the phone” and notify federal agents prior to the release of a “violent or predatory felon” who is in the country illegally. But critics say the failure is not the county’s policy, but the feds’ refusal to get arrest warrants in a timely manner for offenders they want to deport. “It’s much better when we have a warrant. Because when we have a warrant, we can directly hand the person off and have ICE take custody. A phone call or some other kind of notification often that doesn’t work,” said Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams. The reality is that any discussion of immigration policy in the age of President Trump has become super polarized. It remains to be seen if politicians and law enforcement in San Jose can manage find a compromise when it comes to Santa Clara County’s policy with ICE.<doc-sep>SAN JOSE — Supervisor Dave Cortese is proposing that Santa Clara County change the way it notifies law-enforcement agencies about the release from jail of violent felons, after a recent San Jose homicide allegedly committed by an undocumented immigrant. The death of Bambi Larson, who was killed on Feb. 28 in her home in a quiet neighborhood in South San Jose, sparked local outrage, as well as criticism of the county’s policy of not notifying federal immigration authorities when undocumented immigrants are released from its jails. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials went further, noting that ICE agents had in the past sent the county six civil requests to detain Carlos Arevalo-Carranza, 24, the suspect in the Larson murder, when he was about to be released from jail after serving sentences for a raft of offenses, at least two of them violent. Detainer requests ask counties to hold individuals long enough for ICE to pick them up for deportation proceedings. In the case of the Larson suspect, all six were ignored, in line with county policy, and Arevalo-Carranza was released without ICE being notified. Cortese said the modifications he’s seeking preserve Santa Clara County’s requirement that a warrant from ICE — or any law-enforcement agency — be obtained before the county will hold people beyond their prescribed jail time, and does not change the county’s overall denial of civil detainer requests. In the proposal he announced Thursday, Cortese urges the county to work with the sheriff, district attorney, San Jose police, Office of Immigrant Relations and other stakeholders to come up with policy amendments “to ensure the timely and lawful notification to other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, of releases of inmates convicted of serious or violent felonies.” San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia lauded the collaborative elements of the proposal and said he believes county supervisors “have the best interests of our residents at heart.” But, he said, he also didn’t want his message to get lost in the discord over warrants and detainer requests. “No one’s asking them to detain them” beyond their release date, Garcia said, referring to jail inmates that ICE has requested be detained longer. He said they are simply asking that the county allow ICE to be notified about the imminent release of people who have committed serious or violent crimes. Notification in those cases is allowed under the state’s sanctuary law, which the county policy currently supersedes. And warrants, he noted, are not needed for those notifications to be given. Cortese’s proposal emphasizes that all law-enforcement agencies would receive the notifications, even though ICE is presumably the only one that could make use of them. “This is a pretty significant departure from where we’ve been, incremental as it is,” Cortese said. “Warrants or not, our immigration system is broken, but our communication system is also broken. We’re trying to fix parts we can fix without breaking any other laws.” Another component of Cortese’s proposal would compel county officials and police departments to work with ICE to streamline the transfer of jail inmates to federal custody, in compliance with a warrant or court order, and create a system where county police agencies can get real-time notification of “ICE-initiated judicial warrants.” After the Larson homicide, Santa Clara County officials blamed federal immigration authorities for failing to get a warrant for Arevalo-Carranza. “When ICE was asking us to do holds on a request basis without a warrant, it was unconstitutional, and it was shot down over and over again,” Cortese said. “Their objections in the past were never absolutely clear.” But ICE has said that the rejection of those civil detainer requests by the county has stymied their efforts to deport violent criminals who are in the country illegally. Besides the six detainer requests they said they sent for Arevalo-Carranza in Santa Clara county, they also sent three requests to law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles. “It’s unfortunate that our communities face dangerous consequences because of inflexible state laws that protect criminal aliens,” reads a statement from ICE. ICE officials also argue that the insistence on warrants is misguided, since the agency’s enforcement and removal operations division, which issues the detainer requests, is enforcing civil immigration violations, not criminal ones — like human trafficking — which are the domain of the Homeland Security Investigations division. Cortese’s plan would align Santa Clara County with current practices in San Mateo County, and the proposed policy shares elements with a proposal made by Board President Joe Simitian in 2013, when the county and state were bolstering their sanctuary policies. Police say Arevalo-Carranza, who lived in San Jose but was originally from El Salvador, broke into Larson’s house on Knollfield Way and stabbed her to death early on the morning of Feb. 28. It remains to be seen how much of an effect Cortese’s plan would have on a case like Arevalo-Carranza’s, or whether someone with a similar criminal background — which for him included drug, burglary, false imprisonment and other charges — would warrant notifications under the proposal. The arbiters of that would still be Sheriff Laurie Smith and her administrators, who supported Cortese’s proposal. “Ms. Larson’s murderer should have been deported based on his criminal history and violent past,” Smith said in a statement. Mayor Sam Liccardo said he hopes the latest proposal “actually results in long-overdue changes to enable jail officials to make the common-sense distinction between predatory felons — as contemplated by SB 54 — and the 99-plus percent of members of our immigrant community who would never commit such crimes.” But Luis Angel Reyes Savalza, immigration attorney and member of the Santa Clara County Forum for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment, contends those citing Larson’s death to push policy changes are capitalizing on the tragedy ”for political ends.” “Fixating on the individual’s alleged nationality does a disservice to the victim’s family and dangerously misleads the public with racist notions about who immigrants are,” he said in a statement. Santa Clara County Public Defender Molly O’Neal said she also doesn’t see a need to veer from the county’s current standard.<doc-sep>Police in California have arrested an illegal immigrant with known gang ties and an extensive criminal history in the February killing of a San Jose woman. Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranza, 24, was arrested Monday night in connection with the murder of 59-year-old Bambi Larson; police say he stalked her before stabbing her to death. Larson, a systems manager in San Jose, did not show up for work on Feb. 28. That seemed unusual to co-workers, who phoned her son to alert him. ICE MAKES MORE ARRESTS AT DECOY UNIVERSITY; SOME DETAINEES BEING DEPORTED, AUTHORITIES SAY Larson’s son and a co-worker went to her home in the 900 block of Knollfield Way around 1:45 p.m. and discovered her body in the bedroom, San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said. Police arrived and found Larson suffering from multiple stab wounds consistent with a cutting tool, multiple lacerations to her body and blunt force trauma. They also recovered a bloodied towel and footprints from the scene near a sliding door. Garcia said that police searched hours of video surveillance from the neighborhood and were able to find a suspect. “The home security cameras showed an unidentified male wearing a backpack, pants and a long-sleeve sweater or shirt as he approached and later left the victim’s residence.” MOM WHOSE SON, 23, WAS KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT URGES TRUMP TO KEEP FIGHTING FOR BORDER WALL Poor video quality prevented police from making a positive ID but they were able to trace the suspect’s path and eventually found a T-shirt containing DNA from the victim and the suspect. On March 10, a man identified as Carranza was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and was taken in by San Jose police for processing, and a DNA sample was obtained. Because DNA results from Larson’s case had not come back yet, the connection was not made and Carranza was released. Garcia said when the results finally came in on Monday, police tracked down and arrested Carranza, who was on probation at the time of the murder. Police located Larson’s phone and e-reader in the suspect’s possession. “The suspect, Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranza , stalked this San Jose neighborhood and his victim. He is a San Jose transient … and is a self-admitant gang member.” SOUTHERN BORDER AT ‘BREAKING POINT’ AFTER MORE THAN 76,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TRIED CROSSING IN FEBRUARY, OFFICIALS SAY Garcia declined to name the gang but listed the extensive criminal history of Carranza, who had six separate detainer requests against him via Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to Garcia, the suspect was detained by the Department of Homeland Security at the border in Texas and deported in 2013. Two years later he was arrested and accused of possession of paraphernalia and convicted of burglary in San Jose. In 2016 he was arrested on charges of battery of an officer, resisting arrest and entering and occupying a property. That same year, in October, Carranza was arrested in Los Angeles on battery charges. His final arrest before the murder of Larson was in January, on charges of possession of methamphetamine and paraphernalia. Despite having six detainers placed on him by ICE, Carranza was never deported. Garcia said at a press conference on Tuesday that his officers do not ask people their immigration status, and doing so in Carranza’s case would not have impacted the results. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He said: “We are here to protect and embrace our otherwise law-abiding, undocumented residents, We are not here nor should we be here to shield admitted gangsters or violent criminals regarded less of immigration status” The San Jose Police Officers' Association issued a statement similar to Garcia’s remarks, calling the legal system “broken.” "When it comes to policing, there’s a distinct difference between a Dreamer who commits a victimless crime and a violent serial sexual predator with multiple offenses. Our society must recognize there’s a difference between someone who is trying to make ends meet for their family, and a self-admitted gang member, a monster who brutally murders an innocent woman in her own home."<doc-sep>
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – A transient arrested in the murder of Bambi Larson was in the United States illegally and had a lengthy history of arrests in the South Bay and Los Angeles, authorities said Tuesday. San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranza “stalked” Larson’s neighborhood before allegedly killing her with a knife and blunt force trauma. “Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranza stalked this San Jose neighborhood and his victim,” said San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia. “He is a self-admitted gang member.” Garcia then detailed his lengthy criminal record. “His criminal history convictions consist of in Feb. 2013 he was detained by the Department of Homeland Security at the border near McAllen, Texas, and deported.” “In 2015, he was arrested for drug paraphernalia. In 2015 he was convicted of burglary in San Jose. In 2016, battery of an officer, resisting arrest and entering a property. In 2016, he was arrested for battery in Los Angeles. In 2017, he was arrested and convicted of false imprisonment in San Jose. On April of 2018, arrested for paraphernalia again. In May, he was arrested for possession of methamphetamine.” “In August of 2018, he was arrested for prowling. On October 2018, he was arrested for false identification and paraphernalia once again.” Garcia said Carranza was currently on probation for the possession of methamphetamine, paraphernalia, false imprisonment and burglary. “Unfortunately, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) placed detainers on this individual six separate times. Two in the Los Angeles area and four in the County of Santa Clara,” he said. ICE detainers are requests to hold people suspected of being in the country illegally for longer than their jail terms until they can be questioned by federal immigration authorities. Garcia was critical of the sanctuary city, county and state policies that prevented Carranza from being turned over to immigration officials. “Those undocumented citizens who are not violent or serious criminals should not fear the police,” he said. “But when we have violent or serious offenders that are preying on our community we must have the ability to protect our residents. We will go to the ends of the earth to find a predator like this. We put the case together, put them in jail and then it is up to the rest of the system to determine what happens next.” “The City of San Jose and our police department has no control over how the county interacts with federal immigration enforcement in the deportation of violent or serious felons like Carlos Arevalo Carranza.” Paul Kelly, president of the San Jose Police Officers Association, said the crime should have never happened. “Not in a million years. We have to change the laws that protect monsters like this suspect,” said Kelly. “If you have dreamers that are just trying to survive and make a better life for themselves, that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about changing the laws that protect criminals that will violently attack women.” ICE Acting Field Office Director Erik Bonnar said his agency has had nearly a dozen detainer requests for Arevalo-Carranza that have gone unanswered. They filed a 10th detainer on his on Tuesday after his arrest. “ICE preliminary information suggests this is at least the tenth detainer ICE has lodged with local California law enforcement agencies on Arevalo-Carranza since 2016,” Bonnar said in a statement. “All nine known previously lodged detainers have been ignored and have allowed Arevalo-Carranza back onto our streets to re-offend.” “How many more people have to be killed or injured before California lawmakers will open discussions to revise the state policy prohibiting local law enforcement agencies from working with ICE to apprehend dangerous criminal aliens?” the statement continued. “It’s unfortunate that our communities face dangerous consequences because of inflexible state laws that protect criminal aliens. These sanctuary policies have unintended, but very real, and often tragic consequences to public safety.” Mayor Sam Liccardo took aim at the Santa Clara County sanctuary policy in a statement following the police press conference: “It is long overdue for the County to reconsider its current policy of ignoring ICE hold requests for predatory felons, which undermines the safety of the very immigrant communities we collectively seek to protect,” said Liccardo. “The County’s policy has nothing to do with the City’s decades-long policy of declining to have police engage in federal immigration enforcement, which was implemented to protect public safety.