Twin Cities man targeted by ICE posts bail in fatal crash case, pledges to obey court and not flee

A Minneapolis man targeted years ago for deportation pledged Thursday to abide by court-imposed conditions that allowed him to leave jail three days after his arrest on charges that he caused a fatal crash last summer.

German Adriano Llangari Inga, 35, was released from the Hennepin County jail Tuesday evening after posting a $100,000 bond and is due back in court on June 11 in connection with a head-on collision on Aug. 3 that killed Victoria Eileen Harwell, 31, of Minneapolis.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an extradition detainer after Llangari Inga’s arrest at the crash scene alleging the Ecuadorean national entered the United States illegally in 2016. He was then “placed into removal proceedings” while remaining in the country, an agency spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the Sheriff’s Office failed to honor the detainer and released Llangari Inga on Aug. 6 without alerting ICE.

In a brief interview Thursday with the Minnesota Star Tribune, Llangari Inga said he has not been contacted by ICE since he left jail and will follow all the conditions set by a Hennepin County district judge as his case goes forward.

Kirk Anderson, Llangari Inga’s attorney solely for the criminal case, said Thursday afternoon that “I don’t have any reason to think he won’t comply with them. ... Now, if ICE does something between now and [his next court hearing], that’s another thing.”

At Llangari Inga’s initial hearing Monday in Hennepin County District Court after his arrest Saturday, the state requested conditional bail of $150,000.

Judge Amber Brennan set the amount at $100,000, noting that Llangari Inga did not appear to be a flight risk since he was in court several months after the crash and has stayed in Minnesota.

Llangari Inga’s release from jail comes with conditions that are standard for a defendant charged with criminal vehicular homicide. They include showing up for court appearances, remaining law-abiding, surrendering passport, not leaving Minnesota without court approval, and not possessing guns, alcohol or illicit drugs.

Should he run afoul of any of those terms, he would be subject to arrest and returned to jail, and be out the $100,000 he posted through a bail bond company.

Llangari Inga, who was driving without a license and allegedly while drunk, was jailed early in the morning following the crash. He was released two days later. He was charged nine months later on May 2, then arrested eight days later.

The White House has used Llangari Inga’s case to criticize some Democratic elected officials in the Twin Cities for what are known as sanctuary policies, in which local officials decline to accommodate ICE deportation efforts.

In a statement shared with the Star Tribune, White House spokesman Alex Pfeiffer emphasized that cases such as Llangari Inga’s are “precisely why the Trump administration is taking action to hold these so-called sanctuary jurisdictions accountable.”

Jeff Day of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.