lowellsun.com
By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.com
Updated: 01/21/2012 06:34:03 AM EST

AYER -- A Mexican national who made headlines after being deported from the U.S. three times -- twice being convicted of drunken driving in Massachusetts -- was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to his third drunken-driving offense.

In Ayer District Court yesterday, Eduardo A. Torres , 36, of Marlboro, pleaded guilty to operating under the influence-third offense, for his Sept. 24 arrest in Boxboro.

Judge David Cunis sentenced Torres to 18 months in jail, less the 119 days he has been held, with a mandatory eight-year loss of license.

Torres has two drunken-driving convictions in Massachusetts, in 1999 and 2000.

But Torres' legal problems aren't over. After he completes his Massachusetts' sentence, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a detainer on Torres. Once he is released from jail, ICE agents will take him into custody pending his extradition to Mexico.

Torres could also face federal prosecution for illegal re-entry after deportation.

Boxboro police stopped Torres on Sept. 24 when an officer noticed an expired inspection sticker on the black 1988 Chevy pickup truck Torres had driven into a Gulf gas station.

He allegedly was driving with a 12-pack of Modelo beer bottles on the passenger seat of a car with a suspended registration and the expired sticker. Torres, who also had a suspended license, allegedly failed a field sobriety and Breathalyzer test, according to police.

More than an hour after the original stop, Torres allegedly registered a .09 blood-alcohol level, which is slightly over the legal limit of .08.

Although initially charged with operating under the influence of alcohol-sixth offense, prosecutors amended the charge of OUI-sixth to OUI-third when they discovered a Torres' drunken-driving conviction and two pending OUI cases in California were under a different name.

Prosecutor Felicia Sullivan said the suspect gave another name when Boxboro police arrested him, but the fingerprints were a match for Eduardo Torres. His mugshot appears to match the defendant's photo in the California cases, but prosecutors couldn't confirm it was the same man.

Border-protection agents found Torres in Arizona on March 24, 2005, and deported him two days later to his native Mexico. Federal agents found Torres again in California about a year later, on March 13, 2006. He was deported for a third time that same day.

Before his brush with Boxboro police, the last time he was encountered by U.S. law enforcement was when he was deported to Mexico in 2006.

Even after he completes his sentence in Massachusetts, California officials may want to pursue Torres on the two default warrants, Cunis said.



Read more: Illegal alien gets 18 months in Boxboro OUI - Lowell Sun Online