Thread: Driver had 3 prior N.C. arrests

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Driver had 3 prior N.C. arrests
The Charlotte Observer

February 15, 2007

Now we have programs in place that will stop these kind of criminals. An illegal immigrant who led police on a pursuit and was charged in a fatal Rowan County wreck last week had been arrested at least three times in North Carolina. But he was not deported after those arrests, authorities said Thursday.

The man, Carlos Alfonso Guillen Martinez, will be deported as soon as state officials release him, federal authorities said. If convicted, he would likely serve prison time before being deported.

It won't be the first time Guillen Martinez is thrown out of the country after committing a crime, investigators said:

** In 1997, he was deported from Los Angeles, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Richard Rocha said Thursday. The charge: Assault with a deadly weapon, causing great bodily injury.

** In 1998, he was deported from Houston after trying to sneak back into the country, Rocha said.

His three N.C. arrests -- including two in which he was charged with driving while impaired -- have all been since 2002, authorities said. He used fake names after each N.C. arrest, officials said.

Guillen Martinez, 33, of El Salvador, appeared by video in a Rowan County court Thursday morning where he was charged with second-degree murder and driving while impaired. Guillen Martinez was being followed by a Kannapolis officer Feb. 6 when he crashed into a car driven by Leeanna Newman, 20, of Salisbury, killing Newman and her unborn baby.

'I imagine a lot of people are going to ask why we didn't keep him out' of the country, Rocha said. 'Now we have programs in place that will stop these kind of criminals.'

The Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office received training in 2006 to help them work with federal investigators to identify illegal immigrants in the county jail.

Three of the 10 U.S. law enforcement agencies that have gone through the training are in North Carolina, the most of any state, Rocha said.

ICE agents interviewed Guillen Martinez for the first time Wednesday, hours before they announced he was in the U.S. illegally.

He told the agents he paid a smuggler $1,500 in 2002 to sneak him across the U.S. border in El Paso, Texas, Rocha said.

Later that year, he was committing crimes in North Carolina, Rocha said. Authorities linked the crimes by matching fingerprints, Rocha said.

In November 2002, Guillen Martinez was arrested for driving while impaired in Alamance County, Rocha said. Records there list an arrest for an Inslito Pineda, who was released in early 2003.

Rowan County sheriffs deputies said they believe they held Guillen Martinez in the Rowan County Detention Center in January 2004 and that he gave jailers the same alias, Inslito Pineda. Pineda was charged with driving while license revoked, and was jailed and released.

Deputies said they also believe they held the same man in the county jail under the name David Ortiz in August 2004. Ortiz was arrested on charges of driving while impaired, assault on a law enforcement officer, driving while license revoked, resisting arrest, injury to personal property and giving fictitious information to an officer. Ortiz received a 19- to 23-month prison sentence when he was convicted in 2005, deputies said.

By that time, he had more than 200 days credit for serving time while awaiting his trial, Rocha said. He was released on probation last year.

'This is the third name we know of, and there may be more,' Rowan County Sheriff George Wilhelm said.

Copyright © 2007 The Charlotte Observer, All Rights Reserved.

And it just keeps getting worst and worst. How many illegals have committed violent crimes. No one seems to have this information. No one can even say how many illegals are in the country. Complete disregard of american laws by illegals.