October 13, 2015

Last Two Members of the Jamal Dean Getaway Team Sentenced

The last two members of the Jamal Dean Getaway Team were sentenced today in federal court for their roles in obstructing a joint state-federal investigation and search for Jamal Dean in April and May of 2013.

“The arrests, convictions and sentencing’s in both the Jamal Dean case and the related Jamal Dean Getaway Team cases are the result of a law enforcement partners at the federal, state and local levels working together to help make Woodbury County and the surrounding region safer for everyone,” said U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa Kevin W. Techau.

Techau also noted, “We will continue to work side-by-side with our law enforcement partners to vigorously investigate and prosecute those who break the law and particularly those who commit violent offenses.”

Evette Morris-Hernandez, age 34 (a F-13 gang member), of Sioux City, Iowa, and Esteban Hernandez, age 36 (her husband at the time), of Mercedes, Texas, received the sentences after guilty pleas to conspiring to defraud the United States by interfering with the federal investigation of and search for Jamal Dean.

Evidence presented at their guilty plea and sentencing hearings revealed that from about April 30, 2013 to May 5, 2014, the pair moved Jamal Dean from Ingmar Hernandez’s South Sioux City, Nebraska home, to Anna Baker’s home on the Winnebago Indian reservation, to the Palmer House Hotel in Sioux City, Iowa, and ultimately to within 70 miles of the Texas/Mexico Boarder to help him escape the joint state and federal investigation and manhunt of which he was then the subject.

Evette Morris-Hernandez and Esteban Hernandez were sentenced today in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett. Evette Morris-Hernandez was sentenced to 41 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed. She must serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Esteban Hernandez was sentenced to 6-months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed. He must serve a one-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Both defendants will surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set by the Court.

The case was prosecuted as a part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a cooperative local, state, and federal program aimed at the enhanced prosecution of gun crimes. The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations; the United States Marshal’s Service; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Iowa Department of Public Safety, the Iowa Department of Transportation, Bureau of Investigation & Identity Protection, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations, the Nebraska Department of Public Safety; the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Nebraska State Patrol, the Tri-State Drug Task Force, the Woodbury County, Iowa Sheriff’s Office; the Dakota County, Nebraska Sheriff’s Office; the Sioux City, Iowa Police Department, the South Sioux City, Nebraska Police Department; the North Sioux City, South Dakota Police Department, the Sergeant Bluff, Iowa Police Department, and the Dakota County, Nebraska County Attorney’s Office, and the Woodbury County, Iowa County Attorney’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Forde Fairchild.