Thread: Man gets nearly 3 years for confining immigrants

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August 23, 2006

Immigrant smuggling case ends

By Jon Murray
jon.murray@indystar.com
The last of three men who held about 20 illegal immigrants in a Far Southside apartment pleaded guilty this morning to one charge of criminal confinement.

Rolando Marcial-Hernandez, 25, will spend three years in community corrections programs, starting at the Marion County Jail annex. But the other two men, who pleaded guilty to the same charge last week, were released from jail on probation.

Prosecutors said Marcial-Hernandez, Jose DeJesus Palacios, 33, and Sergio Felix-Martinez, 30, were part of an illegal immigrant smuggling ring. They used a one-bedroom apartment in Indianapolis as a way station, and the immigrants were driven to Indianapolis from Phoenix.

The men shook the immigrants down for more money, prosecutors said, and threatened to kill them if they tried to escape.

Judge Patricia J. Gifford said Marcial-Hernandez deserved a stronger sentence because of his criminal record, which included drunken driving and public intoxication charges last year. Marion County Community Corrections will decide when to shift Marcial-Hernandez into the work-release, home detention or daily reporting programs.

“I would hope this serves as a warning, as this is not something Marion County takes lightly,” said Mary Garner, a deputy prosecutor, about human trafficking.


Call Star reporter Jon Murray at (317) 444-2752.

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August 24, 2006

Man gets nearly 3 years for confining immigrants
By Jon Murray
jon.murray@indystar.com
August 24, 2006


A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to holding 20 illegal immigrants captive in an apartment and was sentenced to nearly three years in community corrections, but two other suspects received no jail time.

All three pleaded guilty in Marion Superior Court to criminal confinement. They were arrested in early May after one immigrant escaped, telling police he had been held captive for three days at a Far Southside apartment and had been fed one egg a day.

The men drove the immigrants from Phoenix to Indianapolis, shook extra money out of them and threatened to kill them if they tried to escape, prosecutors said.

"I would hope this serves as a warning," deputy prosecutor Mary Garner said after Rolando Marcial-Hernandez, 25, was sentenced Wednesday. Human trafficking "is not something Marion County takes lightly."

Last week Jose DeJesus Palacios, 33, and Sergio Felix-Martinez, 30, each received time-served sentences and 18 months of probation, minus the 107 days they had already spent in jail.

They would have faced much stiffer penalties at trial.

All three had been charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and intimidation, and Palacios with attempted kidnapping and attempted criminal confinement. A conviction for conspiracy to commit kidnapping -- a Class A felony -- would have netted 20 to 50 years in prison.

The Marion County prosecutor's office had pressed for three years in prison for each. Judge Patricia Gifford said Marcial-Hernandez deserved a strong sentence because of his criminal record, which included drunken driving and public intoxication arrests last year.

He will start at the Marion County Jail annex. Marion County Community Corrections then will assign him to the work release, daily reporting or home detention programs.

Through an interpreter, Marcial-Hernandez told the judge he was not an active participant in the immigrants' confinement from April 28 to May 1.

"I am aware that was my apartment," he said. "But I was working."
One man escaped, and an off-duty Marion County sheriff's deputy broke up a fight at the Downtown Indianapolis bus terminal between the immigrant and a suspect trying to recapture him.

Roger Rayl, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said he did not know the three suspects' immigration status. Teresa Hall, the public defender for Marcial-Hernandez, cited attorney-client privilege when asked.