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Man charged with murder in county park was deported twice before: ICE

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) SWAT officers. (Department of Homeland Security/Released)

The man charged with raping and strangling a jogger in Jersey City’s Lincoln Park had already been deported twice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

Jorge Rios, who was identified by ICE officials as Jorge Alberto Rios-Doblado, is from Honduras and “has been removed from the country on two prior occasions, in 2003 and 2004,” according to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operation (ICE-ERO) in Newark. ICE officials also said Rios initially entered the country illegally.

ICE-ERO said that it has placed a detainer on Rios following his arrest on Sunday on charges the 33-year-old kidnapped, raped and murdered Carolina Cano, 45, of Gautier Avenue in Jersey City, on March 24. The nanny’s body was found in the lake near the Casino in the Park building that day.

The ICE-ERO spokesman said “ICE maintains that cooperation by local law enforcement is an indispensable component of promoting public safety. ICE will seek taking custody of Rios at the conclusion of his criminal proceedings, despite limited cooperation in the state.”

If Rios is convicted of the charges against him, he will have to serve his prison term first before a possible third deportation. The charge of murder carries a possible sentence of 30 years to life in prison upon conviction.

Rios, formerly of Belmont Avenue in Jersey City, was arrested in a Jersey City restaurant on Sunday and is being housed at the Hudson County jail in Kearny. The state has filed a motion to detain him through the course of his prosecution.

Following Cano’s death, Jersey City Police Department Emergency Services Unit divers have returned to the lake at least twice to scour it for further evidence. Divers were most recently in the water on Monday.

Rios was spotted on surveillance video in the area the woman’s body was found around the time police believe she was murdered, a law enforcement source said.

Cano is from Peru and worked as a nanny. A resident of the building where she lived off West Side Avenue said she had been in the United States for about two years. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop has said that it appears Cano and Rios were strangers.

Rios was at the Belmont Avenue building to visit residents of his former first floor apartment on the weekend Cano was raped and killed, one resident of the building said. Little is known about Rios, who authorities said Wednesday works at Jersey City company that cleans stores.

A spokesman for ICE-ERO would say only that Rios was previously removed from the United States due to immigration violations. At a meeting with residents Tuesday night, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said Rios has no previous criminal record.

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© 2019 The Jersey Journal, Secaucus, N.J.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.