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Paperwork slip might have let fugitive go
By CHRIS TISCH CLEARWATER -- One would think Puerto Rico would want to get its hands on Jorge Blasini Cruz. He was, after all, one of Puerto Rico's most wanted fugitives. He is accused of two murders, one over a woman in 1997, another over drugs in 1999. He fled Puerto Rico and wound up in Clearwater, where he was arrested last year for cocaine trafficking. Since November, Cruz has sat in the Pinellas County Jail. He has been held on the drug trafficking charge, some robbery charges out of New York and the Puerto Rico murder charges. All Puerto Rico had to do was send a governor's warrant and paperwork to Pinellas County within 90 days, and Cruz would be theirs. Ninety days is the limit that Cruz could be held without a warrant. Valentine's Day was the 90th day. The day passed and despite frantic efforts from county and state officials to get the murder warrants, Pinellas County hadn't received anything from Puerto Rico. When midnight passed, Cruz could have walked out of the jail if he had enough bail money. He didn't, though, because his bail on the trafficking charge, along with a charge for missing a previous court date, was $70,263, more than he could afford. Just to be safe, Pinellas officials also had scrambled to get New York to ship their robbery warrants here so they could hold him on those. New York had previously decided to hold off on sending the robbery warrants down in favor of Puerto Rico's more serious murder charges. The New York warrants arrived Thursday, but weren't served until 9:12 a.m. Friday, nine hours after Cruz' hold on the Puerto Rico murder charges expired. Jail officials could have served the warrants Thursday, but didn't need to because they knew Cruz couldn't post the $70,263 bail, said Susan Smith, extradition coordinator for Gov. Jeb Bush's office. "This doesn't happen to us very often," said Smith, who has been in extraditions for 12 years. "I can't recall that it's ever happened" with a murder charge, she said. Smith said Pinellas officials have been calling Puerto Rico officials about Cruz's situation since late January. Pinellas officials then sought the help of her office, and she has been calling Puerto Rico almost every day since last week, she said. Puerto Rico officials told Smith that the warrant was in the office of Gov. Sila Calderon awaiting her signature. It just hadn't been signed yet, Smith said. The warrant was finally signed on Thursday, said Luis Torres, a spokesman for the governor's office. Smith said Puerto Rico officials shipped the warrant via Federal Express on Friday. It won't arrive until Tuesday. She said Puerto Rico officials were apologetic for the delay and said they would work on ensuring it didn't happen again. "They said it was a glitch," Smith said. It's not the first time Cruz has nearly given the slip to Puerto Rican authorities. Besides somehow leaving there to get to the United States after the murders, Cruz also was able to outmaneuver police after his drug arrest last year. Undercover Clearwater officers arrested Cruz after they found 135 grams of cocaine in his car on Aug. 17. But police didn't know who he was. They thought they were arresting Jonathan Casanas, an alias Cruz was using. When arresting officers ran the name Casanas to check for outstanding warrants, nothing showed up. Cruz went before a judge the next day and his bail was set at $15,000. A friend hired Emergency Bail Bonds and offered a motorcycle as collateral to get Cruz out of jail. Then he was gone. A week later, Puerto Rico police got a hit on a fingerprint database. They called Clearwater police, who then learned Casanas was Cruz. Cruz had skipped town. His bail bondsman also was looking for him. If he wasn't found, the bondsman would be out $15,000. David Brown, of Emergency Bail Bonds, learned Cruz had gone to Massachusetts, but may have returned to Florida in November. Brown prowled the streets looking for Cruz. He saw him one day near a St. Petersburg hotel. Cruz tried to flee, but ran head-first into a wire brace on a utility pole. Brown handcuffed him. Brown was astonished to learn that for all their work to catch Cruz a second time, he almost slipped away again. "I understand the ball gets dropped on small charges, but when you're talking murder, I don't get that," Brown said.
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
