The memorial for Ximena Meza, the 9-year-old girl murdered last week, keeps growing and growing, as does outrage toward her accused killers, Anaheim resident Alfredo Miguel Aquino and Ricardo Cruz of Buena Park. Well, let the outrage continue: the two cholos were not even supposed to be on the streets hanging out together in the first place.
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Records obtained by the Weekly show that on September 20, Buena Park police officers saw Aquino and Cruz hanging outside a liquor store. This was in direct violation of their respective probation for an October 2013 incident, where the two were stopped by Buena Park officers in a white Honda. The two went on to plead guilty to the felonies of possession of a billy club, and misdemeanors of street terrorism, driving without a license (Aquino) and being high on marijuana (Cruz).
Part of their probation stated that Aquino and Cruz were not supposed have contact with each other. But after the Buena Park PD caught them hanging out this past September, the two were taken into custody for violating their probation. Aquino's probation officer wrote in a report to the court that “It is felt that [Aquino] needs to be held accountable for his actions and time in custody could help him get back on track,” and that he serve 45 days in jail.
Didn't happen.
On September 24, Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Christopher Evans found Aquino in violation of their probation and ordered Aquino to serve 30 days in OC Jail. Five days later, Evans sentenced Cruz to serve 16 months in state prison.
Neither served a day of their sentence. Instead, the two were credited for time served for previous stints, put back on probation, and set free. Each defendant was ordered to report to their probation officers within 24 hours of their release from custody, but it's not known if that happened.
A month later, police say they drove a white car from which one of them emerged and killed Ximena.
More details to come…
With additional reporting by Gabriel San Román
Email: ga*******@oc******.com. Twitter: @gustavoarellano.
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