Jury Subpoenas Oceanside Man in Leticia Probe

A federal grand jury investigating the disappearance and death of 7-year-old Leticia Hernandez has targeted a 40-year-old convicted child molester and alien smuggler who lives in Oceanside, sources have told The Times.

The man was subpoenaed Tuesday before the grand jury, but did not testify because he asserted his constitutional right to remain silent, sources said. Before the man left the courthouse, he was served with a demand that he produce blood and hair samples by next week, an indication that investigators intend to run DNA tests to try to link him to the case, sources said.

The remains of the girl, whose kidnaping 15 months ago launched a dramatic nationwide search, were found two weeks ago in a remote North County canyon long known as an alien-smuggling route. Along with the girl’s bones, investigators have said, they found in the canyon a pair of red shorts she was wearing when abducted.

The subpoenaed man said he had been instructed Tuesday by his attorney to decline comment on the case.

A small, dark-skinned man, he bears no resemblance to witnesses’ descriptions of the alleged captors, said variously to be a huge, blond white man or two white women. Those descriptions were released by police after 18 purported sightings of Leticia.

The Oceanside man describes himself as 5-foot-6 and 154 pounds, according to court records.

It remained unclear Wednesday what accounts for authorities’ resurgent interest in the man, since his house and car were searched in January, 1990, in connection with the girl’s disappearance the month before, according to sources and federal court records. The demand for tissue samples suggests that a case against him is still being built.

But he is a target of the grand jury investigation, two sources told The Times. Federal law requires prosecutors to notify a target of that status before trying to compel the suspect to testify before a grand jury. Being a grand jury target means prosecutors believe there is substantial evidence linking a suspect to a crime, and that the suspect is a likely defendant.

However, the man has not been charged with a crime in Leticia’s disappearance and may never be charged.

Although murder cases are almost always prosecuted in state courts, the federal panel has the authority to investigate kidnapings and lesser charges, according to federal law.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Larry Burns, the prosecutor in the case, declined to comment. U.S. Atty. William Braniff said federal prosecutors cannot discuss anything about a grand jury probe.

Leticia’s disappearance Dec. 16, 1989, as she played outside her family’s Bush Street apartment in Oceanside, sparked a massive hunt as police received thousands of leads and at least 18 reported sightings from California to Florida.

The crime received national television exposure with segments on “Crime Stoppers,” “Unsolved Mysteries” and “America’s Most Wanted.”

It also brought an outpouring of sympathy from the community. Benefits were held, raising more than $10,000 in reward money. An Oceanside police officer wrote a song to help raise reward funds.

After Leticia’s disappearance, witnesses told police they had seen the 4-foot, 60-pound girl taken away in a vehicle.

One of her alleged captors was described as a white man in his mid-30s or early 40s, about 6 feet tall, 230 to 250 pounds, with blond, shoulder-length hair that was thinning on top. He reportedly had a tattoo of a cross with printing on it on the back of his hand.

Another captor was described as a slender white woman, about 30, 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-11, with blond hair and a light complexion. A third suspect was said to be a white woman with a deep tan, in her late 40s or early 50s, heavy-set, with dark brown hair with gray streaks.

The descriptions were released by police after Leticia allegedly was sighted at rest stops, gas stations and road stands between Buckman Springs east of San Diego and High Springs, Fla.

Between February and May, 1990, Leticia reportedly was seen in 10 different towns in northern Florida. The last purported sighting, in High Springs, was May 22, police said.

After that, there were no more sightings. As late as the beginning of this month, police said they had no new leads.

On March 6, a property caretaker discovered Leticia’s skull near a rural county road in a sparsely populated area between the Pala Indian Reservation and the Riverside County line, about 22 miles from her home. The disclosure of the finding was made public March 11.

Oceanside police said at first that Leticia may have been dead for three to 12 months. Cal Vine, the county’s supervising medical examiner, said Wednesday that his office had a new estimate, 12 to 15 months, meaning she may have been killed soon after her abduction and that all 18 reported sightings may have been bogus.

Even if the girl never left California, the federal grand jury can still investigate her abduction. The federal kidnaping statute provides that anyone missing for 24 hours, and presumed kidnaped, has traveled across state lines, giving federal authorities the power to pursue the case.

Leticia’s bones were found in an area with few houses, about 2 miles south of the Riverside County line and east of S16, a two-lane road that runs through a rugged canyon. The lonely road has been used by alien smugglers as a bypass to the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint a few miles to the west on Interstate 15.

The target of the grand jury probe was convicted in the mid-1980s of aiding and abetting alien smuggling, federal court records indicate.

A federal magistrate sentenced him to 40 days in jail for the misdemeanor conviction, the records show.

More recently, the man pleaded guilty to a count of child molesting, a felony, according to court records on file at the county courthouse in Vista. He was sentenced to 91 days in County Jail, three years’ probation and $100 restitution.