DALLAS COUNTY, Texas — In July 2016, Nicolas Monarrez pleaded guilty to murdering Linoshka Torres and Luis Campos. Linoshka was pregnant. Police said the victims, who were a couple, were innocent and had no connection to Monarrez or his two accomplices who had ties to Mexican drug cartels.
Monarrez was first sent to a federal prison in West Virginia to serve a 10-year sentence on a separate drug case. Then, he was supposed to be transferred back to Texas to serve 15 more years for the murders -- but that didn’t happen.
“He needs to serve that time, but under the circumstances, he may never do that,” said Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot.
Creuzot said the Federal Bureau of Prisons turned Monarrez over to ICE for deportation after he finished the drug sentence in 2021.
"But when they made the decision to not bring him back to Texas and instead deported him, that’s where it went completely off the rails,” said Creuzot.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons told WFAA it followed policy, which requires the department to let the county know an inmate is about to be deported and if they want him back, that agency needs to contact ICE so the inmate doesn’t get deported.
In this case, it was up to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department to go and get Monarrez, but the department never did.
WFAA requested a comment from Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown and was sent the following statement:
"There were mistakes made with the initial disposition of the case in 2016 that were not noticed upon the subjects released from FCI in 2021. We continue to work with our criminal justice partners to improve our processes."
Creuzot said there was also confusion with some of the paperwork in this case, not making it clear that Monarrez was supposed to come back to Texas.
“The assistant district attorney who filled out the plea paperwork just put federal sentence but didn’t put any details, so the judge didn’t put any details on the docket sheet, and the clerk didn’t put any details in the judgement,” said Creuzot.
That might have made it confusing for the sheriff's department, but even so, the Federal Bureau of Prisons followed its policy and still would have let the sheriff know the department had an inmate that needed to come back to Texas.
So, Creuzot said, they are making changes and created a new form that all parties, including the judge, will have to sign so there are no more mistakes.
“We are going to make changes in our own process to make certain that doesn’t happen anymore,” said Creuzot.
Linoshka Torres’ sister issued a statement saying, “In this case, they helped this monster continue his life with his loved ones while Linoshka, Luis and their baby weren’t given a chance.”
Creuzot said there is a flaw in the system and he wants to make sure there aren’t other criminals free who should be in prison, like Monarrez. As a result, Creuzot said the DA's office is reviewing other cases.