Albuquerque –
In Memory of Stephanie Anderson, September 15, 1974 to June 20, 2009
June 20, 2009 was a busy Saturday morning at the Denny’s restaurant on Coors Blvd in Albuquerque. At about 9:40 a.m., three men entered the restaurant and staged an armed robbery. During the robbery, a firearm was discharged by one of the robbers and a kitchen worker, Stephanie Anderson, was killed. Two of the assailants were captured on June 20 but the third would not be brought to justice for five years.
In the days and weeks following the robbery and murder, the following information was revealed:
- The names of the three assailants were Marvin Antonio Aguilar-Lopez, Pablo de Leon-Ortiz and Francisco Melgar-Cabrera.
- All three were illegal aliens from El Salvador
- Each had resided in Albuquerque for over a year.
- The trio specialized in restaurant robberies
- Two of the three had full, unrestricted N.M drivers’ licenses.
- The two with N.M licenses had each been arrested at least once by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) for driving while intoxicated (DWI), and on neither occasion had APD notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the arrests.
Marvin Antonio Aguilar-Lopez was indicted in federal court in Albuquerque for violation of the Hobbs Act. To take the death penalty off the table, he agreed to plead guilty to murder and robbery. He was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison. His federal prisoner number was 13012-085. He was incarcerated at the Rivers Correctional Institute. He is no longer in federal custody.
Pablo de Leon-Ortiz, was also indicted in federal court. To take the death penalty off the table, he also agreed to a plea deal. His deal was for 35 years in federal prison. His federal prisoner number is 48789-051, and he is currently jailed at the Oxford, Wisconsin Federal Correctional Institute. His scheduled release date is December 7, 2033.
Francisco Melgar-Cabrera escaped from Albuquerque on June 20 and made it back to El Salvador. It took the Salvadorian Supreme Court five long years before it agreed to extradite Mr. Melgar- Cabrera back to the United States.
Instead of accepting a plea deal, Melgar-Cabrera decided to go to trial. One year after his extradition to the United States, he was convicted by an Albuquerque federal court jury. He was sentenced to life plus twenty.
Francisco Melgar-Cabrera is currently housed at the United States Prison at Victorville, California. His federal prisoner number is 77664-051. His scheduled release date is upon his death.
There is no record that I am aware of that either Albuquerque’s then Mayor or its then Chief of Police came to Stephanie Anderson’s funeral to express condolences and to admit that Stephanie would probably still be alive had APD informed ICE of the DWI arrests of two of the assailants. There is no record that I am aware of that any member of the New Mexico Legislature came to Stephanie Anderson’s funeral to express condolences and admit that she would probably still be alive but for the fact that in 2009 New Mexico was one of just two states in the United States that gave full unrestricted drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens. The other state was Washington.
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https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/francisco-melgar-cabrera-sentenced-life-imprisonment
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