Santana Gaona Has been Arrested for Murder of Jesse Labon Benavides!

 

Santana Gaona's August 30th Dallas County Jail mug shot
 
By Nicholas Stix

At 4:19 p.m. today, a family member of murder victim Jesse Labon Benavides, 33, informed me that suspect Santana Gaona, 31, has been taken into custody. I have not yet been able to corroborate this news. Since the media reported that Benavides had been murdered, they have been silent, not so much as naming Gaona as the suspect, which is something that this blog did exclusively, as a result of help I received from a friend of the family.

Let us hope that this news is true, as I had feared that Gaona, named on August 30 by the Dallas PD as an illegal alien, had not slipped across the border to Mexico.

On August 30, Gaona was arrested and charged with rape and being an illegal alien. A family friend of Benavides wrote me that Gaona had allegedly raped Benavides’ sister-in-law at gunpoint.

While Gaona enjoyed the presumption of innocence for the rape charge, there is no presumption of innocence for illegal aliens. Either you can prove that you are in the country legally, or you are an illegal alien, in which case you should never be bonded out for any felony. But the Dallas criminal justice authorities bonded out Gaona. If he proves to be the killer, Benavides’ family will have the basis for a civil action, as Benavides’ death will have been entirely preventable, not that any amount of money will bring back a little boy’s father.

As I have written and will continue to report, Texas’ reputation as a tough-law-and-order state is undeserved. Gov. Rick Perry’s claims to the contrary notwithstanding, you cannot be tough on crime, while having open borders and catch-and-release policies.

Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“Is Illegal Alien Santana Gaona the Suspect in the Dallas Birthday Party Murder of Jesse Labon Benavides?”