Daniel U. Perez Charged With Murder And Multiple Sex Crimes Against Children

Jan. 19, 2012



A fugitive who lived on what has been described as a compound in rural Valley Center is now charged with murder and multiple sex crimes against children.

Thursday afternoon, Daniel U. Perez, 52, who had been known to people in the Wichita-Valley Center area as Lou Castro, made his first appearance, via video monitor, in Sedgwick County District Court. Bond has been set at $2.1 million.

Prosecutors charged Perez with first-degree murder in the death of Patricia Hughes, 26, of Valley Center, who died in 2003. She lived in one of three houses that neighbors referred to as a compound, in the 9500 block of North Oliver. For years, her death had been classified as an accidental drowning at a swimming pool on the property, but the murder charge accuses Perez of intentionally inflicting injuries that killed Hughes.

The new charges against Perez, who became a fugitive after being convicted of sex crimes with a child in Texas in the 1990s, include 36 counts. Among the charges: sexual exploitation of an 8-year-old; rape of a 10-year-old; aggravated criminal sodomy against a 10-year-old. Most of the sex crimes involved two victims and occurred from 2002 to 2009 in Sedgwick County, court documents say.

One of the charges alleges a rape “when consent was obtained through a knowing misrepresentation made by Daniel U. Perez that the sexual intercourse was a medically or therapeutically necessary procedure.”

Aggravated assault charges allege that Perez threatened three people with a rifle.
Judge Warren Wilbert told Perez that he was not to have any contact with any of three alleged victims, listed by initials in the court documents.

Several charges accuse Perez of giving false information in applications for auto credit or life insurance.

Perez faces a Feb. 2 preliminary hearing. Alice Osburn, the attorney appointed Thursday afternoon to represent Perez, said she had not been able to meet with her client and declined to comment.

Perez, who moved from Valley Center to Tennessee, had been in federal custody before being brought back to Kansas this week to face the Sedgwick County charges.

To neighbors around Valley Center, it seemed suspicious that Perez lived in a cluster of three houses where everyone seemed to be associated with him, that he lived in a large, newer home and had a stable of expensive vehicles but didn’t appear to have a job.

“It just seemed like a commune,” one neighbor said, asking to be unnamed because of privacy and security concerns. “There were so many people coming and going.”

Neighbors also grew suspicious as word spread that there had been an unusual number of deaths associated with Perez.

In 2010, the parents of Patricia Hughes, who authorities now allege was a murder victim, went to court to get guardianship of Hughes’ daughter, who was 2 when her mother died. Hughes’ parents contended that her death was one of about a dozen deaths that had something in common: The people who died had been associated with Perez or two other people, court documents in the guardianship case say. The documents also say that Perez used an alias of Lou Castro.

“There is a pattern that members of a group associated with the person using the name of Lou Castro have followed of insuring members of the group and then living off the proceeds of the life insurance policies when one of them dies,” Martin Bauer, the grandparents’ attorney, said in a July 2010 document in the guardianship case.

Bauer claimed that the trail of insurance money basically was this: A woman who was a friend of Perez died in a plane crash in 2002 along the Montana-Idaho border, and her death left $700,000 to her friend Patricia Hughes. After Patricia Hughes died in Valley Center in 2003 in what was thought to be an accidental drowning, $1.2 million went to Patricia’s husband, Brian Hughes. The money he received went into an account controlled by Jennifer Hutson and another woman who were associates of Perez and lived in the cluster of houses. By the time Brian Hughes died in an accident in 2006 in South Dakota, the money was virtually gone. Then Jennifer Hutson died in 2008 in a Butler County traffic accident. After Hutson’s death, the other woman associated with Perez got about $750,000.

According to Bauer, litigation in the Hughes girl’s name resulted in her receiving a significant sum. None of the insurance money from the death of her parents was originally earmarked for their daughter.

Patricia Hughes’ parents contended that their granddaughter was in “imminent danger” and that she would be at risk if she remained in the care of a woman living with Perez.

Three people who had cared for the granddaughter had already died.

Bauer said earlier this week that “there were suspicions” at the time of Brian Hughes’ death, “so we were very glad that we were able in 2010 to place” the Hughes girl “in a safe place.” She is 11 now and lives out of Kansas with family.

Perez had been charged in Texas in 1997 and had been convicted in Texas of multiple counts of felony indecency with a child-sexual contact, said an affidavit filed in Sedgwick County District Court. Perez fled before sentencing in the Texas case, court documents say. Around November 2010, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Kansas to aggravated identity theft and was facing a two-year sentence, documents show.

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WICHITA — When Patricia Hughes drowned in June 2003, police believed she had been trying to rescue her 2-year-old daughter from a pool. But after several more deaths were linked to a group of people with whom Hughes had lived, and evidence surfaced indicating the group was living off life insurance policies, investigators changed course.

Now, authorities believe Hughes was murdered.

Sedgwick County sheriff’s Capt. Greg Pollock confirmed Wednesday the case has been designated a homicide and the suspect, Daniel U. Perez, who is in federal prison on unrelated charges in another state, is expected to be extradited this week to Kansas. Warrants indicate the 52-year-old is facing charges of premeditated first-degree murder and sexual exploitation of a child.

The charges are related to two state cases, though both are sealed. Pollock said the murder charge is related to Hughes’ death, which he said was officially ruled a homicide in September. Court documents indicate Perez lived among the group under a different name.

“There was information that developed over the years that led us to be able to change the classification to homicide,” he said, declining further comment because the cases were sealed.

The group lived together in at least three different states, either in one large home or in houses in close proximity, and was living in a “compound” in Valley Center at the time of Hughes’ death, according to an attorney for Hughes’ parents, who were granted legal guardianship of their now 11-year-old granddaughter.

Hughes’ death is among at least 10 linked to the group, according to court documents in the guardianship case. The girl’s father, Brian Hughes, was killed in 2006 while changing a tire, and two years later the girl’s guardian, Jennifer Hutson, was killed in a traffic accident. Her maternal grandparents won custody in 2010, after federal and state investigators alerted them the child could be in “imminent danger.”

“It troubled us through all these deaths there was no provision where money was earmarked for the child — it was always given to third parties independent upon whether they would use it or not for the child,” said Martin Bauer, a Wichita-based attorney representing the girl’s maternal grandparents. “In fact, by the time Brian died, all the insurance proceeds from Patricia’s death had been spent.”

The grandparents live in Texas.

Investigators believe that when a member of the group died, the others would live off that person’s life insurance policy, Pollock wrote in a court affidavit filed in the guardianship case. He confirmed the information Wednesday.

“There is a pattern that members of a group associated with the person using the name of Lou Castro have followed of insuring members of the group and then living off the proceeds of the life insurance policies when one of them dies,” Bauer wrote in a July 2010 filing seeking custody for the grandparents.

Filings in that guardianship case in Kansas indicate detectives told the grandparents in 2010 the man they knew as Lou Castro was in fact Daniel U. Perez, who had been charged in 1997 with multiple counts in several cases with felony indecency with a child-sexual contact and had fled before sentencing. Investigators also told them of the federal charges for aggravated identity theft.

It wasn’t clear if Perez had an attorney.

The grandparents also determined Castro’s listed address in that federal ID case was the same Tennessee address where their granddaughter was living.

“It is very unfortunate that she and her grandparents are having to re-live this,” Bauer said.

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$2M bond set for man charged in Kan. woman's death

Posted: Jan 19, 2012 7:20 PM CST
Updated: Jan 19, 2012 9:00 PM CST
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Bond was set at $2 million Thursday for a man charged with murder in the 2003 death of a Kansas woman whose drowning was initially ruled an accident, along with several other charges including rape and child sexual exploitation.

Daniel U. Perez, 52, appeared in court via video hookup from the Sedgwick County jail on 39 criminal counts, including premeditated murder in the death of Patricia Hughes. Court documents indicate that both were living with a group of people in central Kansas now linked to several deaths, and Hughes' death was reclassified as a homicide amid evidence that the group was living off life insurance policies.

Investigators initially believed the 26-year-old mother accidently drowned while trying to rescue her 2-year-old daughter from a residential pool at a home in Valley Center, a city just north of Wichita where the group was living at the time. Authorities reclassified her death as a homicide in September.

Two criminal complaints unsealed Thursday show that Perez is facing numerous charges, including one count of sexual exploitation of an 8-year-old child and 11 counts each of rape and sodomy. He also is charged with making a criminal threat as well as several counts each of aggravated assault involving a rifle and making false statements to obtain credit from a Wichita car dealership.

He also is accused of making false statements on life insurance applications in 2006.

Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert set bond at $2 million bond pending a preliminary hearing Feb. 2. The charges were initially filed in September but had been kept under seal while Perez finished serving a federal sentence for identity theft in Oklahoma before being extradited to Kansas to face the state charges.

Perez's court-appointed attorney, Alice Osburn, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press for comment.

The group of people lived together in at least three different states, either in one large home or in houses in close proximity, and was living in Valley Center at the time of Hughes' death, according to Martin Bauer, the attorney for Hughes' parents, who were recently granted legal guardianship of their now 11-year-old granddaughter.

Hughes' death is among at least 10 deaths linked to the group, according to court documents in the guardianship case. The girl's father, Brian Hughes, was killed in 2006 while changing a tire, and two years later the girl's guardian, Jennifer Hutson, was killed in a traffic accident.

The girl's maternal grandparents won custody in 2010, after federal and state investigators alerted them that the child could be in "imminent danger."

"There is a pattern that members of a group associated with the person using the name of Lou Castro have followed of insuring members of the group and then living off the proceeds of the life insurance policies when one of them dies," Bauer wrote in a July 2010 filing seeking custody for the grandparents.

The judge found that the girl was in "imminent danger" and granted the maternal grandparents guardianship.

Filings in that guardianship case in Kansas indicate detectives told the grandparents in 2010 that the man they knew as Lou Castro was in fact Perez, who had been charged in 1997 with multiple counts in several cases with felony indecency with a child-sexual contact and had fled before sentencing.

Investigators also told the grandparents about the federal case filed against Perez in Kansas for aggravated identity theft. In that case, he listed the same Tennessee address where their granddaughter was residing at the time.

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This is a Very dangerous man. WOW!!! I am so glad he is behind bars but am concerned there are other's out there that could harm anyone connected to Hughes or any other victim's.

ADVANCE FOR TUESDAY, MAY 29 - This May, 2012, photo from a video monitor provided by the Sedgwick County District Court shows Daniel U. Perez, 52, in Wichita, Kan. Perez' trial on first-degree murder charges in connection with the 2003 death of Patricia Hughes is scheduled to begin Tuesday, May29, 2012. TV OUT Photo: Sedgwick County District Court Via The Wichita Eagle / AP

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press
Updated 06:17 p.m., Tuesday, May 29, 2012

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A young woman who lived in a Kansas commune as a teenager testified that the group's leader sexually abused her and threatened to kill her and her family.

She spoke during a preliminary hearing for Daniel U. Perez, who's accused of killing a woman from the commune in 2003. Perez also faces multiple counts of rape, sodomy, lying on life insurance applications and other crimes.

The woman who testified about being sexually assaulted said Perez once pointed a gun at her and fired two shots into a wall. She said he then ordered her and her younger sister to undress.

Other witnesses portrayed Perez as a domineering man who got commune members to co-sign loans.

Prosecutors must show a judge enough evidence this week to justify a trial against Perez.

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June 8, 2012

People now know his real name is Daniel U. Perez.

His neighbors and acquaintances now know that Perez is a 52-year-old fugitive who fled after being convicted of sex crimes against a child in Texas in the 1990s.

Perez made his first appearance Thursday in Sedgwick County District Court on charges that he murdered a Valley Center woman in 2003, whose death had been classified as an accidental drowning. Prosecutors also charged him with multiple sex crimes against children from 2002 to 2009.

But his Valley Center neighbors and others had already grown suspicious. About a dozen people associated with Perez and some of his friends had died in accidents. Some of his associates were receiving large life insurance sums because of the deaths.

George Knapple and others in the Wichita-area radio-control-plane community knew Perez as Lou. For years, Perez had used the alias Lou Castro.

Knapple had a unique perspective: Lou had a big thing for radio-control airplanes, and beginning four to five years ago, Lou became one of Knapple’s regular customers at The Hangar on West Street in Wichita. At first, Lou bought a few trainer planes from Knapple.

“Then he started spending money like a drunken sailor … tearing the hell out of them … and then buying some more … he spent a ton of money on those things,” Knapple said.

Each time Lou came into the store, he had “this entourage” with him, Knapple said.

The entourage, which sometimes numbered up to four people besides Lou, included a group of young-looking women. There was a petite, attractive, fashionably dressed blonde, whom Lou referred to as his wife. There was another young woman, maybe a teenager, whose clothing and hair seemed scroungy to Knapple, and whom Lou called “baby girl.”
‘Angel’s Landing’

About two years ago, before Lou moved to Tennessee, Knapple visited the big home where Lou lived with the blonde. It was among a cluster of three houses and a large pool house on a rural section in the 9500 block of North Oliver in Valley Center. Lou’s house, built in 2005 and now appraised at $229,000, covers nearly 3,400 square feet and sits on almost 5 acres at the rear of the cluster of houses – what neighbors came to view as a compound when Lou lived there because the residents seemed to be associated with each other. The house has since sold.

Knapple noticed that Lou’s home had no personal items – no knickknacks, pictures, grandma’s quilts. It seemed like a show home or upscale hotel, with expensive, new furniture and appliances.

Knapple never saw Lou drive the same car twice. Lou drove fancy SUVs and sometimes a Corvette. The vehicles had vanity plates: Angel 1, Angel 2, Angel 3 …

By the parking area outside Lou’s house, someone wrote in the concrete in big letters: “Angel’s Landing” and in small cursive letters, “Lou,” along with two females’ names.

“Angel’s Landing” apparently referred to a grassy airstrip Lou graded and maintained behind his house, to land his expensive toys.

When Lou and his entourage visited the store, the young women always paid, using different credit cards with different names.

Lou never pulled out a wallet. Every time Lou came to the store, Knapple had to get Lou a Coke out of the store machine because Lou didn’t have 50 cents on him.

“So I knew that whole thing was strange … no one ever knew where his money came from,” Knapple said. And because of the strangeness, people in the remote-control community became suspicious.

“What he told everybody is that he was an Indian, South Dakota Indian … a Sioux Indian. He played that up and in fact every once in a while wore Indian jewelry.”

He had long, black hair, and to Knapple he looked like an American Indian.

He told Knapple and others that his relatives died in a plane crash and that he got a lot of money from it.

He told Knapple that his business and source of income was cattle, that he bought and sold cattle, sometimes to the government, and that he had cattle in the Dakotas and in Texas.

Knapple didn’t believe Lou was a cattleman. To Knapple, who grew up on a farm, Lou didn’t seem to have the farming sense and business sense needed for such an enterprise.

Lou and his entourage lived on fast food, as far as Knapple could tell.

When they stopped at the store, Lou would send one of “the girls,” as he called them, to Church’s or Popeyes to get chicken. At Lou’s house, Knapple noticed fast-food wrappers everywhere but no sign that food was ever cooked there.

Beside the house is a sprawling pool house/game room with a large indoor swimming pool. In an adjacent 2,000-square-foot room, Lou kept his planes, motorcycles, a giant-screen TV and couches.

“It was a giant man cave out there,” Knapple said.

Lou said there had been a big pool party where a bunch of cheerleaders swam naked.

To Knapple, Lou was a braggart.

He said he had five Corvettes that were anniversary or special models.

Lou said once that a close friend had drowned but didn’t give details.

“You could never pin him on details” about anything, Knapple said.
Lou leaves town

On Thursday, in Sedgwick County District Court, Perez, AKA Lou, was charged with first-degree murder in the June 2006 death of Patricia Hughes, 26, who lived in one of the houses on the tract off of North Oliver with her 2-year-old daughter. For years, the death had been classified as an accidental drowning in a pool on the property.

Lou and the blonde told Knapple they were trying to get custody of a young girl whose mother had died and that they were in a custody fight with the girl’s grandparents. Later, Lou told Knapple that they had finally gotten custody of the girl.

Knapple said he thought to himself, “That’s weird; no judge in his right mind would do that.”

Sometimes, different men would be in the group that traveled with Lou to Knapple’s store. One was a carpenter who ran a small operation. Another was a large man who did odd jobs and ran errands for Lou.

Eventually, Lou told Knapple he was moving to Nashville, that he loved the climate there.

Lou left town owing Knapple about $700 for plane equipment. Months later, the big man came into the shop and paid Lou’s bill with a credit card.

Most guys had planes that cost $300 to $1,500, but Lou had moved up to mail-order planes from Europe that had 10- to 15-foot wingspans and five-cylinder engines, costing $15,000 or more, Knapple said.

Later, one of the women in Lou’s entourage was trying to sell his planes on the Internet, according to Knapple.
Charges become public

After Lou moved away, rumors spread in the remote-control community that he was in jail, that the IRS was involved.

In fact, Lou – real name, Daniel Perez – was in trouble. By late 2010, he had pleaded guilty in federal court to identity theft and was facing a two-year sentence. Records show that he and his wife had moved from Valley Center to Columbia, Tenn., near Nashville.

Perez had become a subject of an investigation by a federal task force that included a Sedgwick County sheriff’s detective. Authorities won’t disclose the nature of the federal investigation. But a source said it led to evidence that Hughes’ 2003 death wasn’t an accidental drowning.

Behind the scenes, by Sept. 1, 2011, investigators had classified Hughes’ death as a homicide. The next day, Sept. 2, the murder charge and sex-crime charges against Perez were filed under a seal in Sedgwick County. The charges didn’t become public until Thursday, when he appeared in court via video monitor and stood in an orange jumpsuit, without comment or expression. He looked tired.

In an affidavit he filled out to apply for a court-appointed defense attorney in the murder and sex-crimes cases, Perez said he had been unemployed for three years and had been in a federal prison in Oklahoma. He wrote that he had one dependent, a daughter, and that he was separated or divorced.

Before the charges became public, Knapple also heard through the grapevine that someone was looking into murder charges against Lou.

It was widely known that Lou had been associated with a number of people who had died in accidents.

When Knapple heard that Lou was being suspected of murder, he thought to himself, “It makes total sense.”

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