Posted on 02/07/2004 9:21:50 PM PST by Spiff
BY BILL HESS
Sierra Vista Herald/Review
On Jan. 29, two Hereford residents were attacked outside their home and their car was taken from them. U.S. Border Patrol agents later found the vehicle and the three men believed to have taken it. The three were arrested and sit in the Cochise County Jail. The following is the family's story of what happened to them that morning and their feelings a week later. Their names are used with their permission.
HEREFORD - A day late last month started the normal way for Sandy Graham, her husband Will and her children, Brittany and Cody. They got up and prepared to go to work and school.
Will went outside and started two vehicles, his and Sandy's, so they could warm up in the dark early morning cold of Jan. 29.
Sandy planned to take Brittany with her to her work in Sierra Vista before driving her 14-year-old daughter to middle school.
Cody, 11, would wait a little longer in the house before joining his friends in a quarter-mile walk to a school bus stop where they would be picked up and taken to one of the Palominas schools.
Will left first.
"He was gone about two minutes when Brittany and I went out (to get in her Suburban)," Sandy said. It was then that routine turned into terror.
Describing the attack
Brittany got into the car's passenger side, and Sandy was behind the driver's wheel, when the driver side door was suddenly opened and the mother found herself face-to-face with a man who was talking to her in Spanish.
Sandy, who has a limited understanding of Spanish, said she could not understand what the man was saying.
And she really had no time to understand for the man was beginning to hit her and stab at her as he tried to pull her out of the car.
"I wasn't going to get out of the car, not with my daughter in it," Sandy said. She didn't know if the man intended to steal the car and kidnap Brittany.
For Brittany, a different scene unfolded as she watched her mother being beaten. She thought the man had a knife "and was trying t o kill my mom."
The man stabbed at Sandy with a pen. Due to the slashing movements with the pen, he caused injuries to her neck and other parts of her body.
The eighth-grader started to help her mother fight back, but Sandy eventually was pulled out of the car and thrown to the ground, with her assailant continuing to attack her.
Another man then appeared and began to hit Brittany, first with a water bottle that smacked her on the side of the head. A fist found her mouth, cutting her lip, as the second man tried to pull Brittany from the vehicle.
While the girl put up a fight, she was trying to dial 911 on her cell phone. The man took the phone from her. Continuing to fight a losing battle, Brittany was pulled out of the car and thrown to the ground, where her assailant kicked her in the back.
"My back still hurts," she said.
Just before being taken out of the vehicle, Brittany said she looked around and saw a third man by the passenger side window.
The third man looked upset "like he didn't like what was happening," Brittany said. "But he didn't do anything to stop it," Sandy added.
Although more than a week since the carjacking, Sandy and Brittany still have bruises, cuts and scratches from their encounter.
Cody watched the incident from inside their home on Ricardo Drive. And he made the call to 911.
He was smart enough to know he had to contact law enforcement first before anyone else, Sandy said.
During the call, the boy provided the dispatcher with his address. He then told the 911 operator that someone was beating his mother, "and please get here as fast as you can."
His next call was to Will and then "Papa." Papa is his grandfather, Tony Lawhead, who doesn't live too far away.
After the three men left in Sandy's vehicle, she and her daughter ran into the house.
"He (the man driving the car) looked down at us," she said.
But his look wasn't one of sympathy, Sandy said.
The SUV sped off.
Once safely in the house, she and her children were soon joined by others - Will, Papa, sheriff's deputies and an ambulance crew.
Will arrived first. After seeing she and the children were safe, he drove off looking for Sandy's vehicle. His quick search was fruitless.
Then what happened began to set in. Emotions beyond fighting back started to surface. Anger and fear mixed. Support comes from many places Lawhead said his granddaughter cried all day after the criminal acts against her and her mother happened.
Sandy said her father and his wife, Ethel, along with another of the children's grandparents, Dicksie McDaniel, were the ones she, Brittany and Cody turned to, as well as Will, for comfort. The Lawheads were with Sandy, Brittany and Cody during Thursday's interview. Will was working late.
"She was the calming influence for me and my children," Sandy said of Ethel.
Her father, Ethel and former mother-in-law "are like a grandparent support group," she added.
Talking about the crime against them was difficult, even a week later. Sitting in the living room of her house Thursday, a week after the carjacking, emotions returned again, especially for Brittany. More than once the girl had to compose herself during the interview as her face flushed red with tears flowing.
She dabbed her eyes with the shirt of her middle school basketball uniform as she sat on a couch. She had just returned from a game that her team lost. Brittany also is a softball player. When the girl teared up, Sandy would reach out and caress her and pat her head.
Looking at Brittany and Cody, Sandy began to choke up, too.
"These are my heroes," she said. Backing up to what happened around 6:30 a.m. that day, Sandy said she did not see the men when she went out to the car. They were apparently hiding in an area of mesquite trees.
She said it was difficult to see because there was little moonlight.
Brittany said her classmates have been helpful and understanding, as have Cody's friends. Sandy said neighbors, co-workers and others have reached out to her and her family, too.
Illegal immigrants not unusual near home
It is not unusual to see illegal immigrants in the area where the family lives, Sandy said.
They have lived in the rural Hereford area for more than eight years. The children said their contact with illegal immigrants usually was limited to them asking for water or food.
But now Sandy, Brittany and Cody are more wary of illegal immigrants, who, as Sandy said, "have taken a relaxing, rural lifestyle and changed it for us."
Even while coping with the assault, Sandy said she was concerned about the safety of other children in the area and called families advising them - on the same day of the attack - not to let their children walk to the school bus.
Ever since that day, Cody is taken over to his grandparent's home and Papa drives him to school and picks him up. The boy stays at his grandparents' home until Sandy comes home from work, after she picks up Brittany.
Brittany will not leave the house to get in the car without carrying a container of Mace, which she leaves in the vehicle. When she returns home, she carries the stunning gas with her until she is back in the house.
"And my husband does not leave for work until we (her, Brittany and Cody) have left," Sandy said. "None of my kids are ever left alone now."
Face to face again some day?
Sandy, Brittany and Cody may have to testify in court against the three men. Sandy believes Cody's quick reaction in notifying law enforcement is what led to their apprehension by U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Her vehicle ended up with several thousand dollars of damage in the less than an hour the men had it.
The three men accused in the incident, who are identified as illegal immigrants from Mexico, are being held in the Cochise County Jail, each under $75,000 bond. They also have a federal immigration hold on them, meaning they cannot leave the country without federal approval.
The accused are Alfredo Meza Beltran, 24; Arthur Hernandez-Hernandez, 19; and Andres Enrique Valenzuela-Valenzuela, 22. They are each charged with armed robbery, aggravated robbery, motor vehicle theft, conspiracy, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of aggravated assault.
Sandy said she hopes to be able to meet the men.
"I have some choice Spanish words I would like them to hear from me," she said.
SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
America has enough scumbag criminals already, why are we importing more? These guys will do some time, then might get deported, then will be right back over the border the next day. Existing immigration laws need to be ENFORCED!!
Lots of outrage about this in southern California, even from Mexican-Americans.
They think Hispandering with open borders will win more Hispanic votes than it will lose them from their Republican base.
They're dead wrong, and if W. doesn't figure this out, he's going to be a one-termer like his father.
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