The victim's widow, who declined comment for this story, was nine months pregnant the day of the murder. She has seizures now and can't sleep.

"Jesus made a choice. His employer made a choice," Jasmine says now, more than a year later. "But neither of us made a choice. We both lost a husband."

"I'm not sitting here saying, 'Oh, my poor husband.' There's no justification for what he did; let me be clear about that. But it's still really hard to have him in prison."

In some ways, the story of Jesus Hernandez is the story of all immigrants who come to Utah from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Its tragic ending, however, is an aberration. Never before has an undocumented worker in Utah killed his boss over lost wages.

A wake-up call?

Within the Hispanic community, there are some who see justification in what Hernandez did, and others who condemn it.

"To kill someone for $1,000?" a worker in American Fork said. "Now he's in jail and can't provide for his family. What's the point?"

The slaying did nothing to change the situation of illegal immigrants in Utah. No laws were passed because of it. To most people, the name Jesus Hernandez means nothing.

But to Tony Yapias and other Hispanic community leaders, the story of Jesus Hernandez is a wake-up call. Just three months before the murder, Latino workers gathered in front of the Labor Commission to protest the widespread exploitation of migrants. As Yapias sees it, the killing was a direct result of the state not doing enough to protect people like Jesus Hernandez.

"What happened with Jesus, it could happen again," Yapias said. "To prevent another shooting, another Hernandez case, we need legislation that protects undocumented workers."

The answer, Yapias believes, is immigration reform. He doesn't support amnesty for illegal immigrations, as some politicians have proposed, but he does think Bush's temporary guest worker program would stamp out much of the abuse he sees daily.

Meanwhile, Yapias says the issue belongs to the state. While he and other Hispanic leaders are complimentary of the Labor Commission, they say its anti-discrimination office is woefully understaffed. It has four wage claim specialists for 2,000 complaints a year. Only one specialist is bilingual.

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The state must also do more to help workers hurt on the job, he says. But Yapias has little faith in Utah's lawmakers. Hispanics, largely invisible in this overwhelmingly white state, must take care of their own.