Man Pleads Guilty To Entering Country Illegally

WUSA
By Bruce Leshan
Jan 14, 2011
ALEXANDRIA, Va

The illegal immigrant garbage truck driver who struck and killed a bicyclist in Dupont Circle two years ago has just been sentenced to more than two and a half years in prison.

Marco Flores Fuentes pleaded guilty to entering the country illegally after deportation on drug charges. He was never charged in the accident that killed 22 year old Alice Swanson.

US District Court Judge TS Ellis also ordered Flores Fuentes immediately deported after he finishes his prison term.

Swanson's mother and aunts had pushed hard to have him charged criminally in DC after the accident.

But a long Metropolitan Police Department investigation concluded Swanson most likely rode her bicycle into the truck. That conclusion is fiercely disputed by the promising young student's family.

After a WUSA9 story on the case six months ago, agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him for being in the country illegally.

Flores Fuentes has a wife and two children in Northern Virginia. He's a deacon at his Catholic Church. His lawyer argued that he's made a positive contribution to the community in the 13 years since he re-entered the US.

His defense attorney had asked for a sentence of just 15 months.

The prosecutors pushed for 51 months.

The judge said he considered Flores Fuentes work, but concluded he needed to hold down a 31 month sentence in part to deter other convicted felons from sneaking into the country.

"Sentences like this one are a reminder that there are significant consequences for violating immigration law," said ICE field office director Enrique Lucero.

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