Carballo was deported after wife’s slaying, returned to Warren County


Posted: Thursday, January 19, 2012 12:00 pm

Man enters guilty plea in stabbing
By DEBORAH HIGHLAND, The Daily News

Two and a half years after the United States deported illegal immigrant Raul Enrique Carballo upon his completion of a prison sentence for stabbing his wife to death in Bowling Green, he is once again incarcerated here.

Carballo, 45, a native of Mexico, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Warren Circuit Court to stabbing Salvator Orozco outside a Hispanic nightclub April 17 and tossing the pocketknife used in the crime.

A jury, which began hearing the case Tuesday, found Carballo guilty of second-degree assault and tampering with physical evidence. However, before the jury could deliberate on a recommended prison sentence Wednesday, Carballo changed his plea to guilty and also pleaded guilty to being a persistent felony offender. Carballo had been convicted of six felonies in Bexar County, Texas, before killing his wife.

In a separate case, a federal grand jury indicted Carballo on Jan. 11 for illegally re-entering the country. That case has not yet moved through the federal court system. The maximum sentence he could receive if convicted in federal court is 20 years.

Carballo's case is part of a national trend that shows a growing number of people deported from the U.S. are convicted criminals.

In fiscal year 2005, the U.S. deported 246,431 illegal immigrants. Of those deported, 92,221 people - or 37.4 percent - had criminal convictions, according to the 2010 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics compiled by the Department of Homeland Security. By fiscal year 2010, the number of people deported grew to 387,242. Of those deported in 2010, 168,532 - or 43.5 percent - had criminal convictions in the U.S.

"I think what this does show is that our current immigration and border control situation is failing, and you're going to continue to have individuals being able to come back and forth across the border even after deportation and continue to commit felony offenses," Warren County Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Cohron said.

Cohron prosecuted Carballo nine years ago for the Sept. 3, 2000, stabbing death of Carballo's wife, Briesieda Cardona, and also for stabbing and injuring Ortiz Gonzalo during the same incident.
At the time of Cardona's death and Gonzalo's stabbing, the allegations were that Carballo had caught his wife in bed with Gonzalo, Cohron said. In that case, Carballo was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and assault under extreme emotional disturbance. He received a 15-year sentence but served just days short of nine years.

Upon Carballo's release from the Kentucky Department of Corrections, he was deported July 31, 2009.
"I think this shows what the potentially tragic consequences can be," Cohron said about U.S. border security. "Not only do you have the crime committed in April of last year against Mr. Orozco, but you also have the tragedy that after serving eight years, 11 months and 12 days on a 15-year sentence, he was released by the Kentucky Department of Corrections on what current Kentucky law deems a nonviolent offense, was deported to Mexico ... in 2009 and is already back to the United States, back to Bowling Green, committing very violent, nonviolent felony offenses."

Carballo's convictions here are not considered violent offenses under current state law.

A sentencing hearing for the charges Carballo pleaded guilty to Wednesday is set for Feb. 27. The commonwealth has recommended a 14-year sentence with parole eligibility after 10 years.

"For the positive side, we've probably had over 12,000 indictments in the last 10 years, and Mr. Carballo is the only violent offender we can recall returning after deportation," Cohron said.

However, the "possibility always exists" for similar scenarios here, Cohron said.

"I think until something is done to rectify our border-control issues, illegal immigrants will be a constant in the criminal justice system," he said.



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Man enters guilty plea in stabbing - Bowling Green Daily News: Local News