Thread: Deported Staten Island man faces 20 years for returning to U.S.

Deported once, Staten Island man faces 20 years for returning to U.S.

Published: Monday, July 30, 2012, 5:30 AM
By Frank Donnelly/Staten Island

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The government wants to throw a Mariners Harbor man behind bars for up to 20 years, alleging he illegally returned to the United States after being kicked out two decades ago for drug convictions.

Wilfred King, 59, of Holland Avenue, also potentially faces deportation, again, after federal agents recently arrested him and charged him with illegally re-entering the country.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were alerted to King's presence on Staten Island by the NYPD after cops busted him on May 12 in Mariners Harbor, said federal court records.

He was accused of selling cocaine to another man on Kinsey Place, court documents show. That case is pending in Stapleton Criminal Court, said a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

According to court papers, King, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, had been booted from the U.S. in January 1992 after being convicted of two aggravated felonies in Virginia.

He was first convicted on Jan. 15, 1991, in Prince George County, Va., of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, those records said. Two weeks later, on Jan. 31, he was convicted in Petersburg County of conspiracy to distribute heroin.

At some point after his deportation, King allegedly returned to the U.S. without permission, although court papers don't say when that occurred.

He is now being held in a federal lockup in Brooklyn as he awaits the dispositions of his federal and state court cases.

If convicted in the federal matter, King faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine, said a spokesman for Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office is prosecuting that case.

He could be sentenced to up to nine years behind bars if convicted in the state case.

King also potentially faces deportation.

Michelle A. Gelernt, his lawyer on the federal case, declined comment on the charges.

Deported once, Staten Island man faces 20 years for returning to U.S. | SILive.com

If he changed his name to Gonzalez he would be given a work permit and food stamps.

I'd be interested in knowing how he came in. Did he sneak across the border or did the immigration checkpoints fail to apprehend him?