A previously deported illegal alien has been indicted for allegedly murdering a woman and her young son and dismembering their bodies, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) said.
As Breitbart News reported in August of last year, 37-year-old illegal alien José Paulino Pascual-Reyes of Mexico is accused of murdering 34-year-old Sandra Vazquez Ceja and her 14-year-old son, Omar Gallegos Vazquez, as well as keeping her 12-year-old daughter captive in Dadeville, Alabama.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency confirmed that Pascual-Reyes was deported in 2014 under the Obama administration but later re-entered the United States via the southern border at an unknown date.
In an announcement this week, Marshall said Pascual-Reyes has been hit with an 11-count indictment — including nine counts of capital murder for allegedly killing Ceja and her young son and two counts for allegedly abusing their corpses.
The indictment claims that Pascual-Reyes murdered Ceja and Vazquez while kidnapping and sexually assaulting the woman’s daughter, who was allegedly kept captive in the illegal alien’s residence until she was found walking on the side of a road in the small town.
Pascual-Reyes, the indictment alleges, then dismembered Ceja’s and Vazquez’s bodies.
If convicted of the charges, Pascual-Reyes faces the death penalty or a life sentence without the possibility of parole for each murder conviction. For allegedly abusing corpses, Pascual-Reyes faces one to 10 years in prison.
Ceja and her two children, Breitbart News reported, first arrived at the southern border in 2017 and were given parole to enter the United States by the Trump administration while awaiting an asylum court hearing. Though Ceja was dating Pascual-Reyes, he was not the father of her two children.
The 12-year-old girl, according to the Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Office, was held captive by Pascual-Reyes for a week beginning on July 24 — tied to a bed in his Dadeville residence — but was able to escape by chewing off her restraints.
Police allege Pascual-Reyes did not kill the girl and was keeping her captive for the purpose of later sexually assaulting her. The girl, police said, suffered a blow to the head at the hands of Pascual-Reyes while she was held captive.
Ceja, police said, was smothered to death with a pillow by Pascual-Reyes while her son was allegedly beaten to death. The woman’s daughter ultimately led police to her mother and brother’s bodies at Pascual-Reyes’s residence.
Pascual-Reyes remains in Russell County Jail without bail.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.