STEVE PATTERSON ON NOV 30, 2016


Francisco Portillo-Fuentes, left, and Deputy Eric Oliver
Photo credit: Nassau County Sheriff's Office

NASSAU COUNTY, Florida -- An illegal immigrant who was being chased when a Nassau County sheriff's deputy was killed by an SUV told a federal judged Monday he wants to plead guilty to reentering the country illegally.

Francisco Portillo-Fuentes, a 26-year-old Salvadoran, could theoretically face up to two years in prison.

But his attorney told reporters the usual sentence is time served and another seven days behind bars, which immigration officials use to arrange deportation.

Portillo-Fuentes was arrested in Jacksonville about 12 hours after Nassau Deputy Eric Oliver was struck as he ran across Florida 200 in Yulee last week.

Portillo-Fuentes had been riding in a truck with other men that U.S. Border Patrol agents approached, and he ran to avoid the agents.

He had been removed from the country in September, the month after a DUI conviction in Jacksonville, and he had returned by crossing the Rio Grande just three days before Oliver was killed.

U.S. Magistrate Joel Toomey had scheduled the hearing Monday as a continuation of a detention hearing that began Wednesday.

Toomey told Portillo-Fuentes, who remained locked up, to come back next Monday for a hearing where he might be allowed to waive the formal indictment process and simply plead guilty.

Defense attorney Mark Rosemblum said after the hearing that it's common to plead guilty to illegal reentry. Rosenblum said Oliver's death was tragic but that he'd argue Portillo-Fuentes didn't deserve any greater punishment, since he had simply run to get away from authorities.

Copyright 2016 - The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville

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