Seven weeks before he allegedly shot a man to death at a family birthday party, Santana Gaona was in a Dallas County jail cell — accused of raping his wife and red-flagged as an illegal immigrant.
A couple weeks ago, TDMN reporter Wendy Hundley wrote a brief blog item on what initially sounded like one of many arguments-turned-fatal in Oak Cliff.
On Monday, victim Jesse Benavides’ brother contacted us, asking us to look closer into the history of the accused killer, Santana Gaona.
He was right. There was much more to the story. Here’s the top of our article in Saturday’s paper:
Seven weeks before he allegedly shot a man to death at a family birthday party, Santana Gaona was in a Dallas County jail cell — accused of raping his wife and red-flagged as an illegal immigrant.
Ineligible for bail and facing deportation hearings, at the least, the 31-year-old floor layer seemed unlikely to be let back on the street any time soon. Then, for unknown reasons, the rape charge collapsed and federal officials halted the deportation process. Gaona was set free.
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