The Daily Newarker

The ??Star Ledger?? provides additional details on the relationship between the suspects involved in last weekend’s shooting: “In quiet complex, trouble was brewing”:http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1186893631111330.xml&coll=1&thispage=1.

The 10 towers that make up the Ivy Hill Park apartments soar above western Newark like a city within a city. Home to 10,000 people, it is New Jersey’s largest privately owned apartment complex, an affordable haven for working-class families since the 1950s.

Residents call it a “little United Nations,” a place where kids from Central America play with kids from Sri Lanka, where Bangladeshis mix with Jamaicans, Ukrainians with Brazilians, whites with blacks.

It’s the kind of place, residents say, where serious trouble is still rare enough that it stands out.

José Lachira Carranza and his small band of friends stood out.

Residents say the group, which included at least three teenage boys, drank beer and smoked marijuana in the hallways of the 14-story towers and in the playground of the nearby Mount Vernon School.

In recent months, they turned to strong-arm robbery, ordering passers-by to hand over cash, residents said.

A week ago yesterday, that same group is alleged to have done far worse, shooting four college-bound friends in the back of their heads behind the Mount Vernon School. Three of the four died.

Carranza, 28, and two of the teens have already been charged in the killings.

Yesterday, as the victims were laid to rest and as authorities continued to hunt for others involved in the case, residents described how Ivy Hill Park became the tie between the disparate suspects, the place where they met and allegedly forged a bond through crime.

The Ledger also notes that police continue the search for three more suspects: : “Hunt for suspects in Newark killings continues”:http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/08/hunt_for_suspects_in_newark_mu.html

The search for three more suspects in the Aug. 4 schoolyard slayings of three college students in Newark continued today but no new developments were reported by authorities.

Gregory DeMattia, chief of homicide for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, said investigators searched for Rodolfo Godinez, a Nicaraguan national, and two juvenile suspects.

He said some of the investigators had worked 90 hours straight with little or no sleep.

Investigators are “continuing to develop and follow promising leads,” Newark police spokesman Detective Todd McClendon said today.

…

Godinez, a Nicaraguan national, appears to have avoided deportation despite a growing rap sheet. He obtained a green card in 2001, according to Marc Raimondi, spokesman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

By that time, Godinez had already been arrested for robbery in 1999 in South Orange for robbery. The charge was downgraded to theft and he was sentenced to 18 months probation.

In September 2002, he was arrested in Irvington for aggravated assault, robbery and weapons possession. It is unclear what the outcome of those charges were.

In April 2003, he was arrested for robbery in Newark. The charge was downgraded to theft and he was sentenced to 18 months probation, Essex County records show.

Under immigration laws passed in 1996, legal permanent residents can be deported if they are convicted of felonies, or “crimes of moral turpitude.” The phrase is considered vague and open to interpretation of immigration judges.

In most cases, a deportable offense is one in which the person is sentenced to a year or more in prison. Exceptions are made for juvenile offenses.

Because Godinez pleaded to lesser offenses and avoided lengthy jail sentence, he would likely have been able to avoid deportation, according to a law enforcement source.