DA drops charges against Kichline murder suspects (Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice)
By JAMES CONMY
Staff Writer
WILKES-BARRE — A lack of evidence has forced Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas’ office to drop homicide and other related charges against two illegal immigrants accused of shooting a Hazleton man to death last year.
Pedro Cabrera and Joan Romero were supposed to be in Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.’s courtroom Friday morning to begin jury selection in their trial for the May 2006 murder of Derek Kichline.
Through a translator, the two men learned the charges had been dismissed and instead they would be deported to the Dominican Republic. Both will remain jailed until they are removed from the country by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The murder led Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta to propose an ordinance to stop illegal immigrants from living and working in the city.
When two key witnesses, including one who has since been deported, changed their stories, prosecutors said they had to drop the charges. Should new evidence surface, Cabrera and Romero can be extradited back to the United States so a new set of murder charges could be filed, said Assistant District Attorney Michael Vough, the lead prosecutor.
“This is a bump in the road. Hopefully, this road will have a happy ending,” Vough said. “If we took this case to trial and lost, jeopardy would have applied and we couldn’t try them again. At least now we have the opportunity of getting new information and bringing the case back to trial.”
The lynchpin of the case was Sara Hittinger, Romero’s girlfriend at the time of the murder, changing her testimony, Vough said. She originally told police Romero and Cabrera admitted to killing Kichline. Hittinger later claimed she was under the influence of both drugs and alcohol that night and could not remember what Romero said.
Vough, along with Chief County Detective Michael Dessoye and Hazleton City Detective Christopher Orozco, traveled to the Dominican Republic in June to find the other key witness, Cesar Ariel Jaquez. They located Jaquez, but he refused to return to the countryto testify.
In addition, Jaquez recanted an earlier statement to police about Cabrera and Romero bringing a .380-caliber gun into a Cedar Street residence they shared on the night of the murder. Jaquez accidentally shot himself in the leg with the weapon and information he provided at the hospital gave police their first link to Cabrera and Romero.
Ballistics proved the same gun that injured Jaquez killed Kichline, but they needed Jaquez’s testimony to admit it as evidence, Vough said.
“I have no idea why (Cabrera and Romero) shot Derek Kichline, but I know one of them is the shooter,” Vough said. “We just can’t physically prove that.”
Olszewski questioned how Jaquez could be deported when he was a material witness in a homicide case.
Vough blamed Jaquez’s deportation on miscommunication between federal agencies, local police and the district attorney’s office. Even if Jaquez had agreed to come back, his testimony had changed, Vough said.
Lupas defended his office and detectives, along with Hazleton police, insisting they did everything they could with what evidence they had.
“We don’t manufacture evidence. We don’t make up the evidence,” Lupas said. “We’re obligated to do the right thing.”
Romero’s court-appointed attorney Joseph Cosgrove said he and attorneys Bill Ruzzo, Michael Senape and Cheryl Sobeski-Reedy argued all along prosecutors could not prove their case against Cabrera and Romero.
“We’ve been seeking dismissal of these charges since day one,” Cosgrove said. “The evidence simply wasn’t there to prove our clients did this crime.”
When Cabrera and Romero are returned to the Dominican Republican, Vough believes they will have to report weekly to officials in that country. It was those weekly reports that helped Dessoye, Orozco and Vough track down Jaquez.