Northeast

ICE snags criminal alien paroled 17 years into life sentence for pregnant woman's murder

Published

1 year ago

February 2, 2025

ICE snags criminal alien paroled 17 years into life sentence for pregnant woman's murder

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have captured a criminal alien murderer weeks after Massachusetts authorities granted him parole for the 2006 murder of his pregnant girlfriend, state prison officials told local media.

Cesar Polanco, 59, received a life sentence for the beating murder of Judith Guevara, a 25-year-old mother of two.

Her death was ruled a homicide by “blunt force trauma and aspiration of blood.”

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Cesar Polanco, a 59-year-old convicted murderer and illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, pictured in handcuffs after ICE agents arrested him at a Massachusetts prison before he was expected to be paroled. (ICE)

He served just 17 years on a life sentence before ICE picked him up at a Massachusetts prison on Friday, the day of his expected release, the Boston Herald reported.

Guevara was about a month pregnant. The couple shared a 16-month-old daughter, and Guevara had a 5-year-old son from a previous relationship.

On Oct. 26, 2006, the couple got into an argument about Polanco’s drinking, Massachusetts Parole Board records explain.

He stormed out, snorted some cocaine, returned home and killed her in front of the 5-year-old, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.

Polanco called 911 after the slaying and claimed that the victim threatened him with a knife. When police arrived, he answered the door with blood on his face and hands while holding both children, according to prosecutors.

Guevara suffered “massive facial injuries” and had no pulse. She was pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joins an ICE raid in New York City on Tuesday, January 28, as part of a nationwide crackdown on known criminal aliens. (Department of Homeland Security)

Polanco had his prior parole attempt denied in 2021, but authorities in December decided he had been rehabilitated, finding that he remained sober while incarcerated, taken part in prison violence reduction programs, and that he has “a significant support system in the United States and Dominican Republic.”

They held the fact that he was the one who called police in his favor, and the board also noted that one of his daughters supported his release. It was not immediately clear whether it was the daughter he shared with Guevara. He has six children.

Details from Polanco’s denied attempt at parole in 2021 were left out of the more recent filing. The denial, issued in July 2022, revealed that after entering the U.S. illegally at the age of 20, Polanco fell into a pattern of “delinquent behavior” and racked up a series of arrests.

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He was “unable to fully articulate a motive for the murder” or why he had become so enraged.

ICE agents knock on the door of a residence during a multi-agency targeted enforcement operation in Chicago on Sunday, Jan. 26. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“He presented as having very little insight as to why he took the victim’s life,” the parole board found after his first hearing. “His explanation of the offense is inconsistent with the evidence of injuries sustained by the victim.”

Despite opposition from Essex County prosecutors, the parole board approved a home release plan that would require Polanco to keep a job, stay sober and avoid contact with Guevara’s family. But the board also agreed to respect an ICE detainer, and Polanco remained in custody until agents picked him up Friday.

His current whereabouts were not immediately clear. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Polanco’s attorneys for the parole process came from the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project, a student organization at Harvard Law School that works with inmates accused of violating prison rules, parolees facing revocation and second-degree murderers seeking parole.

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Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania utilities appreciate market signals — but not market prices

Published

3 minutes ago

April 19, 2026

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Pennsylvania utilities appreciate market signals — but not market prices

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Rhode Island

Pulled funding creates a bike path to nowhere. Let’s hope RI fixes it.

Published

9 minutes ago

April 19, 2026

Press Room

Pulled funding creates a bike path to nowhere. Let’s hope RI fixes it.

I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.

We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.

It’s clearly a priority.

At least I thought it was.

But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.

The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.

There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.

Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.

The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.

But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.

To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.

That totally sounds worthy.

But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.

Especially for a particular reason in this case.

They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.

When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.

It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.

The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.

But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.

So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.

Too bad.

We were so close.

Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.

Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.

You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.

The PawSox.

The Washington Bridge.

But they’ve done great with bike paths.

And especially, linking many of them together.

Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.

But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.

That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.

We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.

But it’s now apparently dead.

Online commenters aren’t happy about it.

On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.

And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”

Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.

A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”

Hopefully not.

The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.

What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.

It doesn’t have to happen.

Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.

There’s got to be.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com

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