A convicted child-killer serving a life sentence in an Iowa prison is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, insisting that he be deported to Mexico for having come to the United States illegally in the 1990s.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, Aug. 7, by prison inmate Juan Ledesma, seeks a court order that will force Homeland Security agents “to come to Anamosa State Penitentiary and take custody” of Ledesma and send him back to Mexico, his country of origin.
In August 1997, Ledesma was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Karen Jasmen Orozco, an infant who lived with her mother, Mirta Medina, and Ledesma in their western Iowa home. Court testimony indicated Ledesma was home alone with the child on Jan. 28, 1997, while Medina was out looking for a job. When Medina arrived home, she found the child vomiting and having seizures in her crib.
Ledesma, who worked a night shift at a meatpacking plant, allegedly told authorities he didn’t intend to hurt the child, but she kept waking him as he tried to sleep.
Iowa’s state medical examiner at the time, Thomas Bennett, attributed the child’s subsequent death to shaken baby syndrome, although the defense’s medical expert, Dr. John Plunkett, testified at Ledesma’s criminal trial that the death could have been caused by a 3-foot fall that may have occurred several days prior to the child’s death.
Ledesma was convicted of first-degree murder, child endangerment, neglect of a dependent individual and assault causing serious and willful injury. He was later sentenced to life in prison.
Court records indicate that over the past 28 years, Ledesma has filed at least five applications for post-conviction relief, most recently in 2023, and that all of the applications have been denied.
Lawsuit cites Trump’s executive order
Ledesma, 52, is now suing the U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.
The lawsuit argues that ICE and Homeland Security have a “duty” to deport him in compliance with directives from President Donald Trump to deport all “illegal aliens.”
In his lawsuit, Ledesma claims he is a “national of the country of Mexico and is an illegal alien,” having come to the U.S. illegally in 1994. He claims that sometime after being convicted of murder, he was sent to the Anamosa State Penitentiary, where he was visited by ICE agents and signed voluntary deportation documents that remain on file with ICE.
The lawsuit notes that on Jan. 20, 2025, Trump took office and signed an executive order directing Homeland Security and other agencies to pursue the “efficient and expedited removal of aliens from the United States.” The order, the lawsuit argues, requires the removal of “all criminal aliens located in the United States.”
Ledesma also argues that he has been declared a “burden to the American taxpayers by the Trump administration,” and that his ongoing health problems are only going to increase the financial burden associated with his continued incarceration.
“By returning the petitioner back to his country of origin, costs to American taxpayers can be focused on lawful citizens,” the lawsuit alleges, adding that Ledesma “has the right to be deported from the United States under federal law and not be further detained without due process.”
Ledesma is representing himself in the case. The federal government has yet to file a response to the lawsuit.
Ledesma expressed regret in 2019
Court records show that in January 2019, Ledesma wrote to the Woodbury County prosecutor who handled his case, asking for her assistance, including a letter of recommendation, in his efforts to obtain a commutation of his life sentence.
In his letter, Ledesma wrote: “I want you to know from the bottom of my heart the great sorrow that I feel for the innocent life that I took due to my terrible actions. Sadly, when I was young and stupid, I let my bad temper and emotions take control over me.”
In his letter, Ledesma said that during his 23 years in prison, he had completed his GED, taken computer classes and was transcribing books to braille for the blind.
“I am not excusing my terrible behavior just because of my youth,” he wrote. “No! I take complete responsibility for my own actions. Now that I am older, I can reflect back into my own life and I can see clearly all the terrible decisions, mistakes and errors that I made back in my youth.”
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This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa man serving life sentence files lawsuit to be deported to Mexico
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