Denver Metro Crime Stoppers didn’t reward the woman who helped police catch her grandson after he killed a Denver cop because she lives in Mexico, an official said Thursday.
And Kelly Young, widow of slain Detective Donald Young, said she is not convinced the actions of Florencia Casteñada Rodriguez, the grandmother of killer Raul Gomez-Garcia, warrant a Crime Stoppers reward.
Young said other tipsters who on Wednesday were granted shares of a $50,000 reward by Crime Stoppers had called police and offered help without prodding. But she said her understanding was that Casteñada Rodriguez didn’t call authorities on her own and only helped when she was contacted by Mexican federal police.
“I think there is a definite difference in making the initiative and calling rather than the police contacting you and then talking,” Young said.
“If she was very helpful, then I hope she does get money. If she did it because she was made to, then I don’t think she deserves as much.”
Gomez-Garcia was sentenced Oct. 25 to 80 years in prison for killing Young and wounding his partner, Jack Bishop. The officers were shot May 8, 2005, while they worked as security guards at a baptismal party.
Gomez-Garcia fled to his mother’s house in Los Angeles and then to Culiacán, Mexico, where his paternal grandparents lived.
Casteñada Rodriguez told authorities that Gomez-Garcia was staying at her home and she lured him to a store where he was arrested.
Denver Metro Crime Stoppers president Larry Carstensen said Thursday the organization wouldn’t pay any reward to Casteñada Rodriguez because she doesn’t live in the United States. “(Mexico) is out of our jurisdiction,” he said. “We’re a local organization.”
But Carstensen declined to say whether his organization pays rewards to tipsters who live in other states, where other Crime Stoppers groups operate.
He said Crime Stoppers usually only gives rewards to “citizens” who call the group’s tip line directly.
The group will make an exception to the tip-line rule, he said, in the case of informants who give tips directly to a detective. In those cases, a Denver officer must appear at a Crime Stoppers board meeting, describe the person’s tip and explain what role it played in solving a case, Carstensen said.
Based on a Denver officer’s statements to the group on tips in the case, the 20-member local Crime Stoppers board met Wednesday and awarded a total of $50,000 to “more than one person,” Carstensen said.
Denver police did not mention Gomez-Garcia’s grandmother, he said. “I was never presented with a question about what happened in Mexico.”
Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson released a statement Thursday which said the Denver Police Department and U.S. Marshal’s Service will decide if anyone in Mexico will be given a reward by those agencies.
“This decision is confidential and will only be shared with the consul general of Mexico in Denver or his designee,” Jackson’s release said.
Carstensen declined to say why Crime Stoppers did not pay the full $100,000 reward that was advertised in the case. He characterized it as an unusually high amount for the group to offer.
Awards typically range from $50 to $2,000.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
