Beheading Suspect an Illegal Alien From Cuba, Wanted for Arson, on Probation for Domestic Abuse
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The suspect charged in the beheading of a patriotic immigrant in Shakopee, Minnesota, is an illegal alien from Cuba. Federal authorities could not deport him because Cuba wouldn’t take him back. So they released him in 2012.

Alexis Saborit-Viltres is charged with second-degree intentional murder in the beheading America Thayer, who changed her first name because she was a legally naturalized immigrant.

Witnesses saw the illegal alien — a twice-convicted domestic abuser also wanted in connection with an arson — behead the woman in her car, police allege.

The Crime

One of those witnesses videotaped at least part of the crime, NBC affiliated KARE11 reported, citing the criminal complaint.

Having received several 911 calls, “arriving officers found a headless body laying in the middle of the street, with her feet pointed towards the curb and shoulders near the open door of a vehicle, the station reported:

At least two witnesses on the scene told investigators they saw a vehicle stop, and the driver walking to the passenger side door of the car where he began swinging an object repeatedly. One witness told police she saw the driver throw something into a yard, and then drag what looked like a body out of the vehicle. 

Officers found a neighborhood resident who had videotaped the incident from inside their home. The complaint says it showed the suspect pulling the victim’s body from the car, and picking up her head separately. Some officers at the scene were familiar with the victim, and knew her to have a boyfriend named Alexis Saborit, a man whose appearance matched the suspect seen on video. 

Saborit admitted that he killed Thayer, but risibly claimed the crime was self defense.

The two had been dating for years, Saborit told cops, and “they were going to court when the victim told him she wanted to end their relationship and ‘get rid of him.’”

Saborit confessed to using a knife because Thayer had “had gone too far” in abusing him and threatened to end their affair, multiple news reports said.

He said the same thing to the judge at his bail hearing, KARE reported.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Thayer’s coworkers at her old job at the Dollar Tree suspected that the illegal-alien was abusing her.

The three employees said “they saw several signs of domestic abuse,” the newspaper reported: 

Thayer occasionally had unexplained bruises on her face and once came to work with a broken arm. She tried to hurry home after work to avoid angering Saborit. She set her phone to Facebook’s FaceTime function so Saborit could watch her as she worked from 4 to 9:30 p.m.

Thayer also often asked to stay at co-workers’ homes because she feared Saborit’s behavior.

Reba Skaar, a friend who worked with Thayer at Dollar Tree, said Thayer sometimes spent the night sleeping at her desk at My Pillow or in her car at the Amazon fulfillment center parking lot.

Court documents show Saborit had a felony conviction for domestic abuse in 2017. The newspaper reported that Thayer was the victim. Saborit received four years of supervised probation that was scheduled to end in September. The Star Tribune reported he was convicted of domestic abuse in Louisiana a decade ago.

Thayer most recently worked at the My Pillow store.

Saborit Domestic PDF

No Detainer

The Powerline blog uncovered the murder suspect’s immgration record. A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he is “a citizen of Cuba who is unlawfully present in the United States.” He entered the country through Mexico, the website reported.

The agency has not placed a detainer on him to ensure cops don’t release him if he makes bail or skates free on the charge.

Continued Ice:

Saborit-Viltres’s criminal history includes multiple convictions in Minnesota and Louisiana for domestic assault/abuse/battery, DUI and fleeing a police officer. He has pending charges for first degree arson-dwelling, first degree criminal damage to property, and obstruct legal process-interfere with peace officer stemming from a 2020 arrest in Scott County, Minnesota; he also has pending charges for murder, second degree (2021) based on his recent local arrest, also in Scott County.

Powerline reported that immigration authorities freed Saborit because the U.S. Supreme Court limits how long an illegal alien can be held after he receives a final deportation order. “This is often due to a foreign government’s refusal to accept the repatriation of its nationals,” the website reported:

ICE previously attempted to remove Saborit to Cuba, based on a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge in 2012. ICE was unable to obtain the necessary travel documents from Cuba. As a result, and following a review of his custody, he was released on an order of supervision in 2012.