Cecilia Guevara, 39, sat in the Sarpy County Jail as her 16-year-old daughter and two grandchildren died Wednesday morning after their Bellevue, Neb., townhouse went up in flames.Guevara was locked up awaiting trial on third-offense shoplifting charges, a felony. She couldn't come up with $1,000 to get out of jail.
Meanwhile, Cecilia's elder daughter, 20-year-old Jolynna Kaiser, was volunteering at a local food bank as her two children and her teen-age sister, babysitting at the time, were trapped by the thick smoke and flames. Guevara's three youngest children and a neighbor baby escaped the fire.
Authorities placed the surviving kids in foster care, with their ultimate placement to be decided later this week. Relatives are trying to get custody.
"MAN," YOU MUST BE WONDERING, "what kind of felonious miscreant must this jailbird Cecilia Guevara be? Felony shoplifting? Did she shoplift a Hummer? A hi-def plasma TV? An entire Walgreens?"
Saturday's article in the Omaha World-Herald answered some of those questions. The byline said Christopher Burbach, but I'm thinking it was really the ghost of Victor Hugo, because I'm definitely picking up a strong Jean Valjean vibe, here:
Cecilia Guevara, 39, was in the Sarpy County Jail at the time of the fire. She had been arrested on suspicion of shoplifting two coolers, four squirt guns, five swimming toys, nine toy pails and other items July 4 from a Dollar General store in Bellevue. The merchandise totaled $81.EIGHTY. ONE. DOLLARS. In toys.
"I had five kids and no money," she said Friday. "It was the Fourth of July. I just wanted them to have some fun."
She said a chaplain and sergeant broke the news of the fire to her in the jail shortly after it occurred.
"The sergeant was crying with me, telling me, 'We're going to get you out of here,'" Guevara said. "And they did."
While still in jail, a caller from the hospital told her that her grandchildren were still alive. She had some hope they would live, she said.
"Ten minutes later, they called back and said 'They just took their last breaths together,'" Guevara said.
Ironically, a hair tie and a ring were the only two possessions of her own returned to Guevara when she was released from jail.
Her ring matched Alma's. They were gag items that they had ordered through the mail because they were supposed to attract money. Cecilia Guevara, Alma and Kaiser all wore the rings.
"We were so tired of always being broke," Guevara said.
Nebraska is a crappy state in which to be poor and desperate. Read this story, if you have any doubts.
Upon Guevara's release, Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov said springing the grieving mother and grandmother was the right move.
"Compassion would dictate that if there's a consideration that can be made, it ought to be made," he told the World-Herald.
How about this, Mr. Sends People Up the River Over 81 Bucks? How about you just drop all charges against this poverty-stricken women who just lost a big chunk of her family?
After all, wouldn't compassion "dictate" she's damn well suffered enough?
1 comment:
This woman was found dead in her bed
the day before yesterday. Reason for
her death at this time is unknown. Her surviving 3 minor children were placed in foster care and at the time of her death had not been returned. How's that for justice??
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