Illegal alien Francis Hernandez is on trial this week in Arapahoe County District Court for an automobile crash that resulted in the deaths of three people, including a 3-year-old boy.

Francis Hernandez, faces a total of 19 charges, including vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident involving death, and child abuse resulting in death.

On September 10, 2008, the parents of 3-year-old Marten Kudlis buried their son at Fairmount Cemetery, a few days earlier, he was killed while waiting for his ice cream in an Aurora Baskin and Robbins.

An SUV speeding through the intersection of Havana and Mississippi, with Guatemalan national Francis Hernandez at the wheel, slammed into a pickup truck, which was then pushed into the ice cream shop´s window. The toddler was sitting at a table in front of that window, and was sent flying as the truck came crashing through it.

Police say that Hernandez was traveling at a speed of at least 70 mph.

After the crash, police say Hernandez jumped from his Chevy Suburban and fled the scene. He was later apprehended without incident.

Marten was taken to the hospital, but died a short time later due to massive internal injuries.

The two women in the pickup truck struck by Hernandez were Patricia Guntharp, 49, and Debra Serecky, 51. They were both pronounced dead at the scene.

KMGH of Denver covered the child´s funeral and reported that the first song heard during the service was Eric Clapton´s “Tears in Heaven.”

In a heart wrenching display of grief and anger, Marten´s mother Marat Kudlis shouted: “That bastard!,” referring to the illegal alien believed responsible for killing her son. Between the tears, Marten´s father cried out: “I really loved him.”

The rabbi conducting the service told the heartbroken family and friends: “This burden feels like more than we can bear because it is so sudden. It´s a parent´s worst nightmare. It does not seem fair and it is not fair to lose someone so young.”

A teddy bear was placed in the tiny open casket which held Marten´s body.

Following the funeral, many of the mourners returned to the crash site, which became a makeshift memorial, filled with flowers, stuffed animals, and cards with expressions of sympathy and support for the Kudlis family.

One of those mourners, Duane Stokes, told a KMGH reporter: “I helped pull Marten out of the building. I was right there with him. He squeezed my hand. I held his hand until he passed on. My fiance and I were just saying a prayer to Marten and just getting one last glimpse of everything around here. Just to say goodbye to him.”

Marten´s death hit the community hard and his funeral was attended by many people who had never even met him, but were saddened and angered by his senseless death.

Hernandez who has 12 aliases and two dates of birth, has been arrested an astonishing 19 times since 2003. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has also, confirmed that Hernandez has been arrested by nine different police departments. Despite his lengthy arrest record and illegal status in this country, Hernandez has never been deported, nor have deportation proceedings ever been started against him.

The police report shows that after Hernandez ran from the scene, he phoned his girlfriend, Brenda Aleman, asking her to come pick him up at a local Hooter´s restaurant. The report reads: “(He) stated after the accident he was scared and fled the scene, he was afraid he would be taken to jail because he had no insurance, no driver’s license and that would prevent him from seeing his kids.”

Hernandez and Aleman have two small children.

It should be noted that the Congressional Research Service has classified both Aurora and nearby Denver, CO, as a “sanctuary cities.” The term refers to a policy taken by cities which refuse to inquire into an arrestee´s immigration status, or a refusal to inform federal authorities when a suspect in custody is believed to be or known to be an illegal alien.

Shortly after little Marten‘s death, retired Congressman (R-CO) and former presidential candidate Tom Tancredo said that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, as well as Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter “have blood on their hands.”

While both Hickenlooper and Ritter have long been criticized for their opposition to enforcement of our immigration laws, Gov. Ritter tried to deflect any attention from his office onto the federal government and called Tancredo´s comments “out of bounds.”

In response, Tancredo issued the following statement: “While it might be politically expedient to blame Washington for what happened this week or to characterize my criticism of him as ´out of bounds,´ the fact remains that Gov. Ritter is in charge of enforcing and keeping Coloradans safe. It´s time for Gov. Ritter to take concrete steps to ensure that illegal aliens like Francis Hernandez, who had been apprehended by police more than a dozen times, end up behind bars, not back behind the wheel.”

How many more of our children will have to die before our border and our laws are taken seriously by those sworn to defend both?

Tags: arapahoe county district court, baskin and robbins, child abuse, Colorado, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Debra Serecky, Denver, eric clapton, fairmount cemetery, Francis Hernandez, guatemalan, leaving the scene of an accident, marten, massive internal injuries, Mayor John Hickenlooper, pickup truck, Tom Tancredo

It was just a short time ago that democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were making fun of the tea baggers. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Jon Stewart were taking great pride of making an obvious sexual connection to the tea baggers. Now the tea party movement is taking hold and will be a major influence in the upcoming November elections. Its not so funny now, is it Nancy Pelosi? Ed.

Nashville, Tennessee (CNN) — A grassroots movement that exploded last year is now working on its underpinnings as what’s being billed as the first national Tea Party convention gets under way.

The convention started off with fireworks Thursday night as former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado used his kickoff speech to slam President Obama.

“People who could not even spell the word ‘vote,’ or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama,” Tancredo said to cheers Thursday night.

A spokesman for the Tea Party Nation, the group that organized the convention, said Tancredo’s speech may have provided some red meat but termed it problematic.

“It doesn’t further the dialogue,” said Mark Skoda, a businessman and founder of the Memphis Tea Party, who is also serving as spokesman for the convention.

Contrary to Tancredo’s remarks, the Tea Party is not about “name-calling,” said Rand Paul, whose campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky is supported by the Tea Party.

“There are politicians who have gone into the movement and tried to become part of the movement,” he said on CNN’s American Morning.”But really the movement is about individual people.”

The activists are mostly concerned about the “fiscal insolvency of our nation,” he said. “We have to do something, and it’s not going to come from the career politicians.”

Speeches are not the focus of the convention. Panels, sessions and workshops are the bread and butter of this event. Among the sessions scheduled for Friday are ones on how to conduct voter registration drives and where to find conservative votes, women in politics, how to organize a Tea Party group, how to involve youth in the conservative movement, grassroots “on the ground,” how to unite state Tea Party groups, technology in the Tea Party movement and why Christians must engage.

“This convention is a way to galvanize the conservative movement in a way that the general rallies do not,” said Skoda, leading a panel on technology in the movement.

Organizers hope the three-day event will help strengthen the anti-big-government movement. On its Web site, Tea Party Nation says the event is “aimed at bringing the Tea Party Movement leaders together from around the nation for the purpose of networking and supporting the movement’s multiple organizations’ principal goals.”

Organizers told CNN that they’ll announce at a news conference Friday afternoon a set of “first principles” for candidates seeking support from the movement. Skoda refused to term the principles a “litmus test,” but said candidates would have to adhere to the principles to be eligible for Tea Party fundraising and support.

The principles include fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, states’ rights and national security.

There has been pushback against the convention and its organizers from both outsiders and some in the movement because of the Tea Party Nation’s for-profit status and because the price of entry attendees have paid for access to the workshops and seminars being held through Saturday.

Red State blogger Erick Erickson wrote that while he has good things to say about some groups within the Tea Party, “this national Tea Party convention smells scammy.”

Mark Meckler said he and Jenny Beth Martin, co-founders of the Tea Party Patriots, aren’t participating in the convention because “it wasn’t the kind of grassroots organization that we are, so we declined to participate.”

Organizers say some 600 people have paid $549 each to attend the convention and that the event is sold out. But they add that tickets costing $349 are still available for Saturday night’s banquet, where former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin will give the convention’s keynote address.

Neither convention organizers nor a spokeswoman for Palin would confirm reports that she’s getting paid around $100,000 for her keynote appearance.

“I will not benefit financially from speaking at this event,” Palin said in a statement this week. “Any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause.”

Sherry Phillips, who along with her husband, Nashville attorney Judson Phillips, founded Tea Party Nation, said earlier this week in a message to supporters that “we fully expect to break even at this event. We may even make a few thousand dollars to cover local operating costs of TPN.”

Phillips also fired back at her critics, saying, “We never did this to make us rich or famous. Quite the contrary, we are patriots who love our country, our members and the people who are coming to Nashville to attend this great event.”

Tags: Conservatism in the United States, Memphis Tea Party, Nancy Pelosi, Politics, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, Tea Party Nation, Tea Party Patriots, Tennessee, Tom Tancredo, United States Senate, White House