Undocumented Immigrant Wanted In Deadly Hit-And-Run Surrenders To ICE
DENVER (CBS4) - An undocumented immigrant accused of causing a deadly hit-and-run crash has turned himself into Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ivan Zamarripa-Castaneda is suspected of causing the crash early on Saturday, March 3, that killed John Anderson of Lone Tree.
Police in Denver arrested Zamarripa-Castaneda, 26, at his home in the 2600 block of West Bayaud a few hours later.
Zamarripa-Castaneda was released from custody on $25,000 bond at 5:28 p.m. Saturday.
The Denver Sheriff's Department admitted Monday that it made a mistake when it let him post bond before notifying ICE agents.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement was notified of Zamarripa-Castaneda's release more than an hour after he bonded out.
"Our staff should have sent a notification to ICE saying the individual is in the process of being released. For some reason that was not done," said Denver County Sheriff Patrick Firman.
"This is unacceptable and the sheriff has ordered an immediate internal review to determine why established notification processes did not take place before Zamarripa-Castaneda was released," Firman stated.
"We verified that we did in fact have the notification on file. We know that was there and that's what kind of makes this even more baffling. We have this process in place that's worked for every other notification for release so that's what we need to figure out through this investigation is what happened," said Firman.
Zamarripa-Castaneda has been formally charged with vehicular homicide, DUI and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
The City of Denver does recognize requests for notification as well as criminal warrants from ICE, but it does not recognize detainers which ICE also requested in Zamarripa-Castaneda's case.
"It basically requests that we hold an individual past their release date up to 48-hours and allow ICE to come and pick them up. We have been told that that's illegal, that it's a violation of their 4th amendment rights and so we have not honored those since about 2013," said Firman.
All lanes of the interstate were closed after the crash for more than 12 hours.
Officer Marika Putnam of the Denver Police Department said a semi pulling a refrigeration trailer collided with another vehicle, a pickup driven by Castaneda, that was merging on to the highway.
The vehicles collided and struck a jersey barrier. The semi's cab and trailer both caught fire.
