Alabama prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a previously deported illegal alien accused of brutally murdering a young mother and her son while holding the woman’s daughter captive for the purpose of sexually assaulting her.
As Breitbart News reported in August of last year, 37-year-old illegal alien José Paulino Pascual-Reyes of Mexico is accused of murdering 34-year-old Sandra Vazquez Ceja and her 14-year-old son, Omar Gallegos Vazquez, as well as keeping her 12-year-old daughter captive, in Dadeville, Alabama.
In March, Pascual-Reyes was indicted on 11 counts — including nine counts of capital murder for allegedly killing Ceja and her son and two counts for allegedly abusing their corpses.
State prosecutors, 1819 News confirms through a review of court records, will seek the death penalty against Pascual-Reyes in the case.
The indictment claims that Pascual-Reyes murdered Ceja and Vazquez and kidnapped the woman’s daughter, who was allegedly kept captive in the illegal alien’s residence until she was found walking on the side of a road in the small town.
Pascual-Reyes, the indictment alleges, then dismembered Ceja’s and Vazquez’s bodies.
Ceja and her two children, Breitbart News reported, first arrived at the southern border in 2017 and were given parole to enter the United States by the Trump administration while awaiting an asylum court hearing. Though Ceja was dating Pascual-Reyes, he was not the father of her two children.
The 12-year-old girl, according to the Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Office, was held captive by Pascual-Reyes for a week beginning on July 24 — tied to a bed in his Dadeville residence — but was able to escape by chewing off her restraints.
Police allege Pascual-Reyes did not kill the girl and was keeping her captive for the purpose of later sexually assaulting her. The girl, police said, suffered a blow to the head at the hands of Pascual-Reyes while she was held captive.
Ceja, police said, was smothered to death with a pillow by Pascual-Reyes while her son was allegedly beaten to death. The woman’s daughter ultimately led police to her mother’s and brother’s bodies at Pascual-Reyes’s residence.
Pascual-Reyes remains in Russell County Jail without bail.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency previously confirmed that Pascual-Reyes was deported in 2014 under the Obama administration but later illegally crossed the southern border, again, at an unknown date.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
