Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 17

Editor: Tim Konski Telephone 520-573-4101 Fax 573-4107 E-mail tkonskiazstarnet.com Saturday March 24, 2001 SECTION ARIZONA DAILY STAR SERVING PIMA, COCHISE, SANTA CRUZ AND PINAL COUNTIES 7 Ernesto PortilloJr. Tucson jury convicts drug tunnel kingpin be sentenced to at least 24 By Tim Steller The convictions will likely 25, 1999. The tunnel went un fied that Jesus David Alvarezj who goes by his middle name recruited them to transport cot caine loads and store them. Walter Nash, the attorney for David Alvarez, argued that the jury's decisions would turn on whether they believed witnesses who cut deals with the prosecution, exchanging testimony for reduced sentences. SEE DRUG TRIAL B4 Pain endures 17 years after callous nurse's unfeeling action land him a mandatory life sentence.

The jury was kinder to Alvarez's older brother, Francisco Javier Alvarez, finding him not guilty of five counts but convicting him of participating in the cocaine-smuggling conspiracy. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Lacey said he will request that Francisco Alvarez derneath the U.S.-Mexico border, from a shed next to a trailer in Naco, to an area between two houses in Naco, Sonora, and it was used to move tons of cocaine, Lacey said. More than 30 of the Alvarez brothers' co-defendants have pleaded guilty, and a dozen of them testified during the triaL Several of the witnesses testi years in prison, a sentence that he said should worry smugglers. "That's got to get out to the people who are down there on the border and involved in these activities that it's not going to be a slap on the wrist," Lacey said.

The brothers were among 53 people indicted after investigators found the tunnel on May ARIZONA DAILY STAR A Tucson jury deliberated for almost five days before convicting Jesus David Alvarez yesterday of being one of the kingpins behind the Naco drug tunnel. The U.S. District Court jury found Alvarez, 34, guilty of operating a continuing criminal enterprise, plus four other drug and firearms charges. eading this week's story about the family who covered that their baby ceremony bit Hi 1 Man, three kid die in house fire at St. David Dad goes back into burning house for 3 of his 4 children If if tJ 7 il ff a 'Wivi lis "The best we can tell is he woke her up, went out a back door into a patio area with the 2-year-old girl, then went back inside," Dever said.

"She (Saunders) never saw him again." Anthony Maurer, a neighbor, said he heard what sounded like loud bangs about 3 a.m. "I could hear explosions. I could hear this woman yelling and screaming. I threw on some clothes and went out there. The woman was scream- 'My babies, my Maurer Maurer said that by the time he got to the house, flames were shooting out the windows.

"I said, 'Where are they, where are theyT It was just roaring. It blew out a kitchen window," Maurer said. The house that burned belonged to Saunders' parents, SEE FATAL FIRE B5 By Joseph Barrios ARIZONA DAILY STAR A man and three of his children died yesterday in a fire that engulfed a home in St. David. The man went back inside the burning home to try to rescue his children, authorities said.

The victims were identified as Eldred Deforge, 28, his 7-month-old daughter, Brittany, and sons Brian 6, and Robert, 5. Investigators have not determined the cause of the blaze, which was- reported about 3 a.m. in the small community about eight miles south of Benson. Tiffany Saunders and her 2-year-old daughter escaped the blaze. Deforge and Saunders were engaged and all the children in the home at the time belonged to them, said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever.

had been in frozen storage for three years, and not buried as they had thought, has to be painful for anyone. How can you not feel for the parents of the child? Joe F. and Priscilla P. Olea are hurting for the parents. They're still hurting for themselves, 17 years after suffering from the actions of an uncaring nurse.

They are still carrying the guilt of not challenging the nurse and a local hospital. They are still grieving over the loss of their child. Priscilla suffered a miscarriage in her third month. She managed to retain the fetus in her undergarment when she was taken to a local hospital. "I felt this hot rush coming down.

It was blood. I knew I lost the baby," she said. She remembers seeing her baby. Priscilla saw its toes, its head and hands. Instinctively, Priscilla knew to keep the fetus.

Her mother, who had miscarried herself, had told Priscilla to keep the fetus if she ever miscarried. "That's the reason why it stuck in my head," said Priscilla, 42, a security officer for Tucson Unified School District. But while she was being attended to at the hospital, the unthinkable happened. A nurse, said Priscilla, took her baby. "Oh, what are you going to do?" Priscilla remembers asking.

it's nothing," the nurse told her. The baby was nothing. It was a bloody mass of tissue. It had definition but no life. "She tossed it in the trash," Priscilla recalled.

"She stepped on the pedal to open the trash can and just threw it, saying it was nothing." "I'm lying right there looking at her, and she just threw it in the trash," said Priscilla, 24 at the time. She dabs her reddening eyes with a Kleenex. Her husband remains quiet. For years after the miscarriage, Joe blamed himself He moved his pregnant wife and their infant firstborn son to Clifton for a job. It was a stressful move.

They hated Clifton, a mining community next to Morenci, where Joe worked. The air smelled of sulfur. They missed Tucson, their hometown and their families. The Oleas returned to Tucson. Prise ilia's pregnancy had become complicated.

And shortly before the miscarriage, Joe and Priscilla argued. Then came the miscarriage. Joe was not with Priscilla. When she told Joe that their child's remains had been trashed, they felt powerless. They didn't think they could have complained to the hospital "She was a health-care professional We assumed it was the hospital's policy," said Joe, 44, a plumber.

Their pain heightened when they received the hospital bill They were charged for an abortion. They thought about suing. But they had no money. The burden of responsibility still weighs on him. The memory still haunts them.

They have three sons today, but they hang four Christmas stockings. One stocking is small, with a crystal angel attached to it They would have buried the baby had they been given the chance. It was theirs, after all. It was a life. "We were raised knowing that when conception occurs, it's a living being," said Joe.

They can't let go. They live with grief. They also can't forgive the nurse. "I feel he's not resting," said Priscilla. I Contact Ernesto Portillo Jr.

at 573-4242 or e-mail at netopjrazstarnet.com. Photos by Sarah Prall Staff Antique statues are brought to be placed in the rededicated mission chapel by Josh Sisson, 12, left, dm Sankey, center, and her son Rick Sankey, 11, at right. Rite rededicates vandalized chapel Boy, 14, is charged with bringing gun to Palo Verde High By Stephanie Innes ARIZONA DAILY STAR ewly whitewashed and wreathed in flowers, the Our Lady of Sorrows mortuary chapel at Mission Hi I By L. Anne Newell ARIZONA DAILY STAR A 14-year-old Palo Verde High School student remains in custody after being arrested and charged with bringing a semi-automatic handgun on campus, authorities said yesterday. Frankie Baker had a magazine with five rounds in the gun, police said, but the gun did not have a cartridge in its chamber when he was apprehended Thursday.

The Star is identifying the boy because of the seriousness of the allegations against him. Tucson police, who said the incident was probably gang-related, said school officials pulled the boy out of class about 2:30 p.m., 30 minutes after they received a tip from two female students that he was carrying a gun. According to a Tucson Police Department report, school officials held Baker against a locker and asked if he had a gun. He said yes, but resisted being held and was trying to get away, the report says, so he was "taken down to the ground." The school officials then searched Baker and found the gun in his front left pocket. Baker told police he found the weapon, according to the report.

Pima County Juvenile Detention Center spokeswoman Gabriela Rico said the boy was charged with three felony counts: interfering with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution, attempted aggravated assault and SEE GUN BS San Xavier del Bac opened its doors yesterday for the first time since vandals struck last month. As a crowd of about 200 onlookers joined in singing the Catholic hymn "This Holy Ground" in the afternoon sunshine, Bishop Manuel D. Moreno of the Diocese of Tucson completed the rededication by sprinkling those present with holy water. "The bishop wanted to bring closure and healing to a painful episode," said the Rev. David Gaa, the priest at San Xavier.

"In the Catholic tradition, ritual is very important." Rededication is a requirement of the Roman Catholic Church in response to desecration. In a more sobering response to last month's damage, the mission and mortuary chapel now have tightened security. Wrought iron gates have been placed in front of the chapel's mahogany doors, and the gates will be locked each night Floodlights are being installed in the mission courtyard, and inside the main church, workers are putting in video cameras. The chapel, which has been waxed, painted and polished, looks vastly different from the way it appeared the morning of Feb. 13, when green paint stained its walls and 35 of the 50 santos inside lay smashed and defaced in the cactus-dotted courtyard area where yesterday's service was held.

"May all here today and all those in days to come celebrate the mysteries of this place," Moreno urged. As part of the service, Moreno blessed santos that many families brought to the chapel Santos are religious figures given to the church by families in thanksgiving for a miracle in someone's life or in memo- Bishop Manuel Moreno blesses the crowd in front of the newly reopened and rededicated Mission San Xavier mortuary chapel, where three incidents of vandalism outraged the community. METRO BRIEFING Cool oldies walk memory lane up to 97.1 FM I After three decades of playing cool oldies on 92.9 FM, Clear Channel Radio has switched KWFM Cool Oldies to 97.1 FM. Listeners of KWFM can still hear the same morning team i Alan, Skippy and Andi and will continue to hear their favorite oldies, just on a different spot on the dial. Coyote Country will take the 92.9-FM spot but has yet to an- nounce new call letters.

The call letters will be announced next week, said Debbie Wagner, Clear Channel Tucson market man- ager. Coyote Country will spin hits by artists such as Tim McGraw, Faith HilL the Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire. ry of a deceased person. Lupe Hoyos, a 73-year-old retired firefighter from Bisbee, drove to Tucson to attend yesterday's rededication along with his wife and her mother. They brought with them a St Jude statue, which they left in the chapel after saying a prayer of thanks that Hoyos' mother-in-law Adela Garcia's sight was saved by eye surgery last month.

"People are so upset about what happened, and there have been so many SEE CHAPEL B4.