ICE Apprehends Illegal Set Free by Judge After First Court Appearance

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has done what an Illinois court failed to do by taking into custody Saturday a Mexican illegal alien charged with decapitating a missing Illinois woman – yet released by a judge after his first court appearance.

Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, 52, of Waukegan, Illinois had also been charged with stashing the woman’s body in a storage container filled with bleach before Lake County Judge Randie Bruno released the man from custody without bail.

The ICE arrest was the subject of numerous posts on social media.

Police arrested Mendoza-Gonzalez in April. His release after his arraignment shocked the community of Antioch, Illinois, prompting its mayor to call for stricter bail laws.

ICE agents caught up with the Mexican national at a market in Chicago and he remains in custody, Fox News reported.

In April, police in Waukegan found the body of 37-year-old Megan Bos in a container in Mendoza-Gonzalez’s yard. She was reported missing in early March after disappearing in February, her family members said.

Police believed Mendoza-Gonzalez had kept Bos’ body in his yard for nearly two months.

As his defense, Mendoza-Gonzalez reportedly told authorities the woman, who he knew, overdosed at his house. Instead of calling 911, he destroyed her phone and kept her corpse in the basement for two days before moving it to his yard.

After Mendoza-Gonzalez’s release in April, Antioch Mayor Scott Gartner criticized laws that allowed the suspected criminal alien to be released, according to a report from affiliate FOX 32 Chicago.

Scott, himself an attorney for 25 years, told reporters the system had failed after the suspect had been released by the Court.

“There’s other extenuating circumstances in this case,” he said. “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 flight from the country.”

As the result of the ICE arrest, Mendoza-Gonzalez will not get that chance.

Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.