Juan Emmanuel Razo-Ramirez, the man suspected of killing a 60-year-old woman, has had his bond set at $10 million after making his first court appearance on Tuesday.
In addition to having been charged with the death of Margaret Kostelnik, the 60-year-old woman, Razo has also been accused of shooting another woman, who survived, and attempting to rape a 14-year-old girl, Cleveland.com reports.
To the charge of attempted murder, the defendant, a Mexican illegally residing in the U.S., pleaded not guilty. More charges are expected to be filed.
Juan, 35, told Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti through a Spanish translator that he doesn’t have a password or green card — to which the judge replied, “That doesn’t help you here in the United States.”
Judge Cicconetti was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as having said at the defendant’s arraignment on Tuesday that he “cant’ set a bond high enough.”
He’s here illegally? And they didn’t take him? (…) I can’t set a bond high enough.
After shooting one woman in the arm and killing Kostelnik in her home, the Mexican national who has no prior criminal record proceeded to engage in a shootout with police officers on Monday in Lake County, Ohio.
Razo-Ramirez was stopped on July 7 by Lake County sheriff’s officials who released him after communicating with immigration officials. At the time of the conference call between the deputies and Border Patrol agents, the suspect did not admit that he was an illegal immigrant, officials indicated. As a result, “the agents had no legal basis to file a detainer to hold the subject,” the Department of Homeland Security indicated in a statement.
Without such a determination, the agents had no legal basis to file a detainer to hold the subject
The case comes roughly a month after Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant and seven-time felon with five deportations back to Mexico under his belt, fatally shot 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco on July 1.
