In a shocking failure of the Illinois justice system, a Lake County judge released a Mexican illegal immigrant in April, despite gruesome evidence that he allegedly decapitated a woman and stored her body in a bleach-filled container in his yard. It took nearly three months for ICE to track him down again — this time in a Chicago market.
Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, 52, was first arrested and charged in April with concealing a corpse, abusing a corpse, and obstruction of justice after police found the body of 37-year-old Megan Bos, missing since February, in a storage bin on his property in Waukegan, Illinois. Her body, allegedly decapitated, had been hidden for weeks in a container of bleach.
“It is absolutely repulsive this monster walked free on Illinois’ streets after allegedly committing such a heinous crime,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News. “Megan Bos and her family will have justice.”
And yet, within hours of his first court appearance in April, Judge Randie Bruno released him, citing the SAFE-T Act — a controversial Illinois law that critics say favors suspects over safety. Antioch Mayor Scott Garnter was furious.
“I was shocked to find out literally the next day that the person that they had arrested for this had been released from prison under the SAFE-T Act less than, detained less, I think, than 48 hours,” Gartner said. “There’s other extenuating circumstances in this case. Not only the type of crime, how long the crime was concealed, the fact that the person that was arrested for this is not a U.S. citizen, and, you know, can maybe [flee] the country.”
For nearly three months, Mendoza-Gonzalez — a non-citizen, accused of one of the most repugnant crimes imaginable — was free to roam Illinois. According to DHS, he told police that Bos overdosed at his home, then broke her phone, failed to call 911, kept her in the basement for two days, and eventually dumped her in his yard.
Republican state Rep. Tom Weber expressed concern about Mendoza-Gonzalez’s release in April.“Someone that hid their body in a garbage can for 51 days after leaving it in the basement for two days, after not calling 911 [and] breaking a phone. Is this a non-detainable offense?” Weber said. “Should we not find out, wait for a toxicology report, anything?”
Finally, this past weekend, almost three months later, ICE agents arrested Mendoza-Gonzalez at a market in Chicago. He is now in federal custody.
The American people should never have to rely on federal immigration authorities to fix what a state judge’s decision so egregiously broke. One woman is dead. Her accused killer walked free for months. And the only reason he’s in custody today is because ICE stepped in, not Illinois justice.
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