OREGON CITY, Ore. (AP) - A man accused of stepping on the throat of a 15-year-old girl and strangling her had disclosed nine months earlier after pleading guilty to drunken driving he was not a U.S. citizen.
     
Despite the admission,  Alejandro Rivera Gamboa was released without anyone notifying immigration authorities.
     
Dani Countryman was from Texas and visiting her older sister in Milwaukie.
     
Rivera Gamboa and his cousin Gilberto Javier Arellano Gamboa are charged with aggravated murder, attempted rape and atempted sexual abuse.
     
Arellano Gamboa is also in the country illegally, but does not have a previous criminal record.
     
Oregon law prohibits local police from actively searching out illegal immigrants, but the rules change when foreigners land in jail.
     
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)