Illegal immigrant gets prison for unpaid child support
January 29, 2010

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A 33-year-old illegal immigrant was sentenced this week to four years in prison after failing to pay child support for two children he fathered with a Sheboygan woman, according to court records released Friday.




Fernando Zamora-Sanchez was sentenced Monday by Judge Timothy Van Akkeren on four felony counts of failure to support a child, each of which relates to a four-month span between May 2003 and August 2004. Three more felonies that extended the span of unpaid support to August 2005 were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.


A criminal complaint said paternity tests determined Zamora-Sanchez was the father of two children, a girl who is now 12 and a boy who is now 9. He was ordered in January 2003 to pay $223 per month in support, but he never made a payment.


A warrant was issued for Zamora-Sanchez’s arrest in November 2005, and he was located in Colorado Springs, Colo., last November. Court records describe him as a Mexican native with a third-grade education who needed an interpreter to understand court proceedings.


Court records show Zamora-Sanchez is under a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, meaning he is in the country illegally. He will be deported after completing his prison sentence, making the eight years of extended supervision on his sentence irrelevant.


Zamora-Sanchez had faced a maximum of six years in prison, and prosecutors recommended he serve that amount. He was given credit for 184 days time served.


Zamora-Sanchez also has pending charges in two cases filed in 2001, when he was using the name Pablo Cuevas. He is scheduled for a jury trial Feb. 11 in both cases, one of which includes a felony count of second-degree recklessly endangering safety.


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