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Mexican man gets 4 years on illegal re-entry charge

By Judy Harrison

Thursday, November 9, 2006 - Bangor Daily News << Back


By Judy Harrison
Bangor Daily News



BANGOR - A Mexican man barred from re-entering the United States after a 2000 conviction on a sex charge in California was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court to more than four years in prison for being in the country illegally.


Omar Ramirez-Alarcon, 25, of Acapulco, Mexico, also was sentenced to three years of supervised release after he completes his 51-month term in federal prison.

Ramirez-Alarcon was arrested July 11 in Washington County by Maine State Police and charged with unlawful sexual contact, a Class C felony.

He allegedly had gone to visit a Harrington woman he knew the previous day and had unlawful sexual contact with her, according to Washington County District Attorney Michael Povich.

Ramirez-Alarcon has been indicted by the Washington County grand jury on the charge, but has not been arraigned.

Defendants facing federal and state charges usually are sentenced first in federal court, then in state court within a week to save the state the expense of bringing a federal prisoner back for a sentencing on state charges.

On the federal charge, Ramirez-Alarcon faced up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, the recommended sentence was between 41 and 51 months.

If convicted of the state charges, he faces up to five years in state prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

Ramirez-Alarcon has been held without bail at Piscataquis County Jail in Dover-Foxcroft pending the outcome of his federal case.

Ramirez-Alarcon, also known as Misael Gatica-Morales, was deported from California in March 2003 and from Texas the next year, according to federal court documents. Under his alias, Ramirez-Alarcon was sentenced in 2000 to three years in prison for a lewd act against a child under age 14 before his deportation.

That conviction banned him from entering the U.S.