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.
