AURORA | The family of one of three people killed by an undocumented immigrant in a 2008 crash at an Aurora ice cream shop is slamming Donald Trump for using their case on the campaign trail.
Deborah Serecky, Patricia Guntharp and 3-year-old Marten Kudlis were killed in September 2008 when Francis Hernandez slammed into them near a Baskin-Robbins at East Mississippi Avenue and South Havana Street. Hernandez was an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who had been arrested several times before the crash but never deported.
Trump, who has made illegal immigration and deportation a centerpiece of his campaign, mentioned the case during a campaign stop in Greeley over the weekend.
That doesn’t sit well with Serecky’s family, and they’re hoping the GOP nominee stops mentioning them on the stump.
“I don’t want my family’s name mentioned, I don’t want my mom to have anything to do with this,” said Ricky Staats, Serecky’s son.
Trump’s campaign said the candidate mentioned Serecky and Guntharp because their deaths are indicative of a larger problem.
“Mr. Trump included this tragedy in his speech to illustrate the need to enforce our immigration laws and not allow criminals who are in the country illegally to remain here, because they continue to commit crimes, and in this case took the lives of three innocent Coloradans,” Patrick Davis, a senior advisor to Trump’s Colorado campaign, said in an email. “As president, Mr. Trump will enforce our borders and will see that criminals who are here illegally face the full consequences of the law and are swiftly deported to avoid similar tragedies in the future.”
Davis did not answer whether the candidate or his surrogates would continue to mention the victims over the objections of the family.
In Greeley Oct. 30, Trump mentioned Serecky and Guntharp by name and noted that Hernandez had been arrested several times before the crash but was never deported.
“When I become president this crime wave will end, and it will end very quickly,” he said.
Trump then mentioned a Texas nonprofit called The Remembrance Project, which works with the families of people killed by undocumented immigrants.
“I’ve gotten very friendly with a lot of them, they are unbelievable, in most cases, parents whose children have been killed,” he said.
Staats said Trump implied he knew Serecky’s family, which isn’t true. Staats said the campaign has never reached out to them or asked them how cases like their’s could be prevented.
“They don’t care until it’s beneficial to them,” he said.
Serecky had a big family — including three sons and three step children — and Staats said she also took in several of her kids’ friends over the years.
“She made a big impact on a lot of people’s lives,” he said.
The people who knew Serecky are still grieving, Staats said, especially near the anniversary of the crash and with the holidays approaching. That makes hearing her name mentioned in these circumstances particularly tough, he added.
“You hear someone bring it up, and it’s not heartfelt, he doesn’t care — thats what upset me the most,” he said.
The Hernandez case sparked a furor when it was revealed he had a lengthy arrest record but had never been deported. At the time, local jailers said they reported Hernandez to federal immigration officials after prior arrests, but federal agents never picked him up while he was in custody. Federal officials pointed the finger back at local jailers, saying they never received a notification about Hernandez.
Kudlis’ father appeared alongside Tom Tancredo, a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, a few years after the crash, but the families have otherwise largely steered clear of politics.
Because of the controversy surrounding the case, Staats said he worried it would come up on the campaign trail this year.
“But I was really hoping it wouldn’t,” he said.
Hernandez, now 31, was convicted of multiple charges in 2010 — including child abuse resulting in death and vehicular homicide — and later sentenced to 60 years in prison. A judge upheld that sentence last year. Hernandez is eligible for parole in 2038 and faces deportation if he is released. His lawyer has said, however, Hernandez plans to fight deportation and live in Denver with his wife and two children.
Police and prosecutors say Hernandez slammed a Chevrolet suburban into a pickup truck at Mississippi and Havana on Sept. 4, 2008, killing Guntharp, 49, of Centennial, and her passenger, Serecky, 51, of Aurora. The impact sent both vehicles crashing into electrical boxes and the ice cream shop, pulling Kudlis out of the store and into the street. He later died. Hernandez fled the scene, police said, and was arrested later that night at his apartment in southeast Denver.
At the time of the crash, police said Hernandez was speeding at more than 80 mph in a 40 mph zone.