Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 13

The Arizona Republic REPUBLIC Sunday, November II, 1981 The last days of Juami Pedro Sierra Rocha as- i i i 4 By CATHRYN R. SHAFFER and MARK SHAFFER Arizona Republic Staff DOUGLAS The last seven months of Juan Pedro Sierra Ro-cha's life had a recurring theme: wrong place, wrong time. Those factors culminated in his death in an Agua Prieta, Sonora, jail last month, whether by suicide, as Mexican officials and a University of Arizona pathologist have maintained, or at the hands of Mexican police, as other medical examiners have speculated. A year ago, the 17-year-old Sierra .1 ii I begged him to stay and live with me, but he said no, that if Emilia's home were robbed, she would blame him. So I told him to be careful and to behave himself and not get mixed up with the police again.

I am sure on my life they killed him. Rosaria Sierra Sierra Rocha's grandmother the police station and then to the federal prison in another part of the city to see if she could find and help her boyfriend. In both places, she was told Sierra Rocha was not there. Josefa Ruiz, Morales' mother, said she became concerned about the welfare of both of the teen-agers about 2 p.m. At that point, she said, police Officers Jorge Cruz and Francisco Salomon brought Sierra Rocha by the arms into the restaurant and asked for Morales.

She was not there. "Juan Pedro's face had a yellow cast, and he was drenched with sweat," she said. "The police were demanding rings of pearls, diamonds and gold and loose gem-stones. It looked like they already had beaten him. But he did not have the jewelry, he had already turned it in." Morales had not returned to the restaurant by 5 p.m.

when the officers arrived again and asked for her. "They said Juan Pedro had asked her to bring him food and blankets," Ruiz said. "1 thought that was strange, because they never send messages like that I got worried, so my husband (Ramon Ruiz) went to the prison to look for the kids. They were not there." Between 5 and 7 p.m. Ruiz and her husband were sent on a wild-goose chase between the police station and the prison.

Guards at both places denied Sierra Rocha was there. At 7:30 p.m., they returned to the police station and were told, "Juan Pedro is inside the barandilla (small jail) and is fine." Shortly afterward, a Red Cross ambulance arrived at the station. The ambulance left without a patient and a hearse arrived. "I knew right then what had happened," Ruiz said. "When they wheeled out a body covered by a white sheet, I told my husband, 'They have killed Juan Pedro.

The couple followed the hearse to the funeral home and went inside. "I could not contain myself," Ruiz said. "I went to the body and pulled back the sheet. As soon as I saw it was Juan Pedro, I started yelling at the police that they were assassins. But they told us that be had hung himself." Morales says she thinks Siena Rocha was deliberately killed by Cruz, who had threatened him before.

She said Cruz said that if Sierra Rocha did not steal for him, he would make him "disappear." "I know Juan Pedro was just wearing a thin black leather belt that day," she said. "There is no way it could have supported his weight." Morales added that the police forged a "Dear Juan" letter from her to Sierra Rocha to try to make the death look like a suicide. Ruiz said she does not believe Sierra Rocha would have killed himself just because he was back in jail. "I am completely sure he did not kill himself," she said. "I don't think he was capable of it he was looking forward to the future with my daughter." When asked how Sierra Rocha could have hung himself when belts and billfolds are removed from prisoners, one state official took a stoic approach.

Carlos Morales, government liaison between Sonora and Agua Prieta, said, "Maybe they missed it. Or maybe he hid it." Sierra Rocha's family said their theory of foul play was substantiated the next day when the body was displayed at Ituralde Funeral Home in Agua Prieta. Leo Sierra, a member of the Committee for Justice in Douglas, said burn marks were apparent on Sierra Rocha's fingers and that his body appeared to be bruised. That's when Sierra decided that he must take Sierra Rocha's body to the U.S. side of the border.

The problem was that it was 1 p.m. on Saturday, the body was to buried at 5 p.m. in an Agua Prieta cemetery, and Sierra needed two documents to clear customs, a death certificate and sanitation papers. After a mad rush in the city, Sierra finally acquired the documents and arrived back at the funeral home at 4:50 p.m. While mourners, who had not been told what was going on, headed south to the cemetery, Sierra and the corpse were en route north to the border.

Sierra had one last close call when a Mexican official told him that he would have to have an order from a judge to take the body out of the country. "But I made my last pitch and told him that the governor would if the body was not Rocha was happily attending English classes at Douglas High School and looking forward to obtaining the papers that would make him a legal resident of the United States. But in March, after having lived for two years with his grandparents in Douglas, Sierra Rocha's illegal-alien status became known to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. He was deported and returned to Agua Prieta to live with his mother and await his immigration papers.

A short time later, his destitute mother was forced to leave Agua Prieta to seek work in the United States "El Norte." Left in the wake was a virtually penniless 17-year-old Sierra Rocha and a live-in girlfriend. A life of small-time crime followed, including the alleged robbery of $200 and jewelry from an Agua Prieta radio station. Ruben Sierra, the youth's grandfather, stares at the document in his hand. Juan Sierra Rocha had applied March 24 to become a U.S. resident.

The first step toward approval was granted June 15. It was then in the hands of U.S. officials. "It makes me very sad," Ruben Sierra said, counting the months. "I have so many friends who finished the whole thing in five or six months." Juan Sierra Rocha's untimely demise also upset his high school classmates, Sergio Mendez, an English-language teacher for Spanish-speaking students, said.

"He was always smiling, and the kids liked him," Mendez said of Sierra Rocha, who was known as "happy hoy" by the other students. "He never caused any problems; he just put his head down and did his work." Rosaria Sierra, Sierra Rocha's grandmother, described the boy she raised first in Agua Prieta and then in Douglas as an easy-going, fun-loving teen-ager who liked to go fishing at Patagonia Lake and repair broken radios. She had a great deal of confidence that he eventually would have received his citizenship and had adopted him with that end in mind two years ago. But after moving back to Mexico, Juan Sierra Rocha's life sped out of control. In August, he met Paulina Morales, 16, who moved in with him.

Neither of the teen-agers had jobs. "At the end of September, before went over and was taken inside." Morales said she tried to follow her boyfriend to find out why he was being held. But she was not permitted to see him and was told he was being questioned. Morales immediately went to her mother's restaurant to find out what could be done. After explaining the problem, she went back to he was released from jail in early October still haunts her.

"He came knocking at my door late one night, and I was in bed, but I let him in," she said. "He started telling me all sorts of things he was thin and hungry and had a lot on his mind. "Suddenly, he said, 'Mami, when are you going to make me asado (roast)? It's been 60 long since I've had Right away, I took the meat out of the freezer." Rosaria Sierra said that after dinner the next afternoon, her grandson cried and told her how at raid he was of he Agua Prieta police and jail. She said he feared being pressured into committing robberies for the police. "1 begged him to stay and live with me, but he said no, that if Emilia's home were robbed she would blame him," she said.

"So I told him to be careful and to behave himself and not get mixed up with the police again. "I am sure on my life they killed him." Morales, who last saw Sierra Rocha alive at 11 a.m. on Oct. 12, also believes her boyfriend was killed. "We were walking by the jail on the way to see my mother," she said.

"As we passed, a guard called out, 'Juan Pedro, come He the robbery, Juan Pedro was feeling a lot of pressure to start making money," Rosaria Sierra said in Spanish. "He and Paulina had been looking for jobs in factories but could not find work. "Emilia (Sierra Rocha's mother and Sierra's daughter) herself had little money and did not share what she had. Juan Pedro liked to wear nice clothes and smoke Marlboro Lights, and she would not give him money for cigarettes or for the Laundromat." Rosaria Sierra speculated that Sierra Rocha was pressured into a life of petty crime because of his financial problems. After returning to Mexico, Juan Sierra Rocha quickly ran afoul of the law.

In May, he was charged with stealing two calculators from an Agua Prieta tourism office, but a federal judge later dropped the charge, Emilia Rocha said. In late September, Sierra Ro- cha's problems increased. He spent more than two weeks in jail after the alleged heist at the radio station. Rosaria Sierra said she received a note from him saying he had been tortured by police who shot six bottles of Teotihuacan bubbly mineral water laced with chili up his nose. Rosaria Sierra said the last meal she cooked for her grandson after Burn marks were apparent on Sierra Rocha's fingers and his body appeared to be bruised.

Leo Sierra Committee for Justice allowed across," he said. Permission was granted, and the body was transferred from a hearse to Sierra's pickup in Douglas. Then, a high-speed drive to Sierra Vista, which set the stage for the series of controversial autopsies and Gang spatters Agua Prieta with blood 'At least 4 police officers watch as low-rider from Douglas is killed By MARK SHAFFER Arizona Republic Staff DOUGLAS Julia Arvizu, 22, quietly opened her family's scrapbook. i On the first page, passively, is a drawing of the Virgin Mary. It acts as a shield against a horrible reality on the inner pages newspaper stories concerning the violent death of her brother, Guillermo Arvizu Jr.

It has been almost two years since Arvizu, 21, met his fate at an Agua Prieta, Sonora, disco at the hand of the Barracudas, a gang in the border city of 60,000. The death of Arvizu, a U.S. citizen, and delays in the Mexican judicial system unleashed a tidal wave of anger among residents of nearby Douglas. That anger led to formation of the Douglas-based Committee for Justice, which has maintained a high profile while pushing for reform on the southern side of the border. For Julia Arvizu, however, no amount of change will ease the pain.

A festive mood had been in the air at Disco El Cid that night, the Sunday after New Year's 1983. "My brother had kissed me on the cheek and said, 'Happy New Everyone was having such a good time dancing," she recalled. As the evening progressed, Julia Arvizu said, she noticed some ominous signs before leaving while her brother remained. "There was this Barracuda, and he was looking at us bad," she said. The Barracuda turned out to be Francisco "Pancho" Moreno, the reputed leader of the gang.

Moreno followed Guillermo Arvizu to a bathroom, allegedly shouted some epithets and hit him on the head with a beer bottle. Arvizu immediately left the disco. Moreno followed and threatened to kill him in the street, witnesses said. About 15 other Barracudas also were on the scene. "There was a big crowd, including at least four police officers who just stood and watched," the victim's father, Guillermo Arvizu said.

A short time later, the younger Arvizu lay near death on a dark street with massive head injuries and a knife wound in his liver. He died two hours later. i Bad blood had existed between the Barracudas and a Cathryn R. Shaffer Republic U.S. citizen Guillermo Arvizu 21, of Douglas, met his fate nearly 'two years ago at an Agua Prieta, Sonora, disco at the hand of the Barracudas, a border-town gang.

The 10-member Committee for Justice in Douglas claims that the gang is involved in narcotics and prostitution and is controlling Agua Prieta's police with money. convicted of "inflicting minor wounds" on Arvizu but has never served a day behind bars. He appealed the decision. Meanwhile, the 10-member committee was formed last year to, as Sierra says, "not to fight Mexico, but to fight the corrupt system in Mexico." Hector Salinas, a Douglas councilman, and Arvizu's father have been the other most active people on the icommittee. "We have had to take our case hard to the media, because that's about the only thing that can affect anything over there," Sierra said.

confessed to the murder and served time in jail but later recanted his confession. He told a Mexican judge that he had been ordered by the gang to take the rap. Douglas officials attempting to monitor the case been dealt nothing but grief. Six prosecutors have been assigned to the case, with most leaving under circumstances. "They would send a special investigator up here, the cops would wine and dine him, and he would go back to Hermosillo saying nothing was wrong," Leo Sierra, a 'spokesman for the Committee for Justice, said.

According to Mexican court records, Moreno was low-rider automobile club in Douglas, of which Arvizu had been a member. Julia Arvizu said Guillermo had injured the eye of a Barracuda gang member during a fight at an earlier date. She said Guillermo Arvizu had tried to pay the hospital bill for treatment of the injury but that Moreno had refused the offer. The Committee for Justice charges that the Barracudas, which got their name from Moreno's liquor store, Licores Barracudas, in Agua Prieta, have been involved in narcotics and prostitution and control the police with money. A member of the Barracudas, Ramon "Sati" Tanabe,.