The case of Hugo Villanueva-Morales has made the news. Mr Villanueva-Morales and Javier Alatorre, 23, are the suspects in the Tequila KC bar mass shooting in Kansas City, Kansas. Mr Alatorre has been apprehended and charged with four counts of murder, but Mr Villanueva-Morales is still at large. In the shooting, Mr Villanueva-Morales had, allegedly, been kicked out of the bar, left, got Mr Alatorre, and the two then returned to the bar and started shooting.
The mass shooting hasn’t attracted quite as much attention from the gun control press, possibly because the motive wasn’t some form of white supremacy but an intoxicated rage, and, I have to wonder, because the alleged perpetrators aren’t evil white men.
It also turns out that Mr Villanueva-Morales is a previously convicted felon, so he was in violation of gun control laws already, simply by having a weapon. And he shouldn’t have been able to commit the crime at all, because he should have already been in jail. From the Kansas City Star:
Judge gave KCK mass shooting suspect probation last year instead of 9 years in prison
By Katie Bernard | October 9, 2019 | 12:03 PM
More than a year before Hugo Villanueva-Morales allegedly walked into a packed Kansas City, Kansas, bar and began shooting, a Leavenworth judge had given him probation instead of nine years in prison.
In doing so the judge, who made news earlier this year for another controversial sentencing decision, departed from state sentencing guidelines over the objections of prosecutors.
Further down:
More than a year ago, in August 2018, Villanueva-Morales pleaded guilty to trafficking contraband in the Lansing Correctional Facility, where he was serving time for a 2011 aggravated robbery in Wyandotte County.
Trafficking contraband in prison is a charge that can carry more than nine years in prison.
Leavenworth Judge Michael Gibbens instead sentenced him to two years of probation because he “accepted responsibility” according to court documents.
Prosecutors opposed the decision.
“We did argue for prison,” said County Attorney Todd Thompson. “But there’s no way anyone could foresee this horrific tragedy from a possession of synthetic marijuana case in prison.”
Gibbens did not respond to The Star’s request for comment.
Gibbens is the same judge who made national news earlier this year when he reduced the sentence of a convicted sex offender because he said the 13 and 14-year-old girls who were victims in the abuse were actually “aggressors.”
The Star’s story has more on Mr Villanueva-Morales’ rap sheet, but that’s not necessary for this article. The alleged perpetrator is the same kind of bad dude we far too frequently read about, and an idiotic judge, who had the opportunity to keep Mr Villanueva-Morales locked up swallowed some sob story and gave him probation, in effect turning him lose on the streets of Kansas City, Kansas.
The article noted that the Kansas state legislature, following Judge Gibbens decision in the child molestation case, changed the law to disallow judges from reducing sentences on sex crimes against minors just because the children might have been willing participants. But no disciplinary action was taken against the judge, because even though he is boneheadedly stupid, he apparently broke no laws.
And that’s the problem: public servants in the lawful performance of their duties are not accountable for the consequences of their actions. But, make no mistake about it: if Messrs Villanueva-Morales and Alatorre actually are the killers, then Judge Gibbens is just as responsible for Everardo Meza, 29, Alfredo Calderon Jr., 29, Francisco Garcia Anaya, 34, and Martin Rodriguez-Gonzalez, 58 being stone-cold graveyard dead as the shooters! If Messrs Villanueva-Morales and Alatorre are convicted of this crime, Judge Gibbens should be right there with them, sharing the same prison cell.
He won’t, of course, because he was simply exercising his judgement in the performance of his duties, but his terrible judgement left four people dead and five others wounded. He should be publicly shamed, shunned by everyone who knows him, and driven from the bench. People should refuse to do business with him. Pickets should be set up outside of his home. The families of the victims should try to sue him, personally, into penury and homelessness, and while such a lawsuit probably wouldn’t work, it would expose him to more ridicule and public shaming, and cost him a good deal of money in legal fees.
We need to hold public officials accountable for the consequences of their decisions. Law enforcement officers who let illegal immigrants go rather than turning them over to ICE should he be held personally and criminally liable for any further crimes committed by those illegals. Judges who let off hardened criminals with light, or no, sentences upon conviction, should he held personally, and criminally, liable for crimes committed by the thugs they had the power to send to prison, but did not.
Hold them accountable!