Thread: TN-Marcia Trimble trial witness awaits decision on deportati

Marcia Trimble trial witness awaits decision on deportation

By Chris Echegaray
THE TENNESSEAN
August 28, 2009

Ex-inmate who gave key testimony faces deportation

Sheldon Anter provided key testimony in one of Nashville's most infamous murder cases last month — helping convict the man who killed 9-year-old Marcia Trimble.

Now, Anter, 40, will face an immigration judge who could order his deportation to Trinidad. He's living in suburban Nashville, trying to avoid publicity and any trouble for his family.

"The streets already don't like me," he said.

He was serving an 18-month sentence for fraud when he went to police with some information. Fellow Metro jail inmate Jerome Barrett, who was already serving a life sentence in another murder and awaiting trial in the Trimble case, implicated himself in the child's 1975 murder.

An illegal immigrant who had been deported once before, Anter's jail term was converted to probation two weeks before the trial.

The federal government also allowed him to go free while awaiting his deportation hearing, rescheduled for June 30, 2010, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Anter told a jury what he heard Barrett say, and told jurors he received no deals in exchange for his testimony. Barrett was sentenced to life in prison.

While he helped state authorities, Anter said, it can't be reciprocated. The state has little to do with deportation proceedings, which fall under the federal government.

"There was never, really, any deal made since the state can't control this," he said. "I'm on my own, doing my own work.

"So far, things have been favorable. I hope I can work this out.''

Nashville prosecutor Tom Thurman, who handled the Trimble case, said the district attorney's office would send a letter to about Anter's actions to be put in his immigration file, if requested.

"My understanding is that it wouldn't be considered relevant in the deportation proceedings," Thurman wrote in an e-mail.

Anter has no attorney in his immigration case. He said he's leery of them after paying three who did little or nothing to help and may file a complaint with the Board of Professional Responsibility.

Immigrants who testify for the prosecution in key cases should try to obtain the seldom used S visa, dubbed the "snitch visa," said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute's office at New York University School of Law.

MPI is a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank. But Anter's criminal history in the U.S. and looming deportation order will make getting one difficult, Chishti said.

"It's not a slam-dunk. None of it is. The best one can do in these cases are not to get deported because you can't fight legal battles out of the country," he said.

First came here legally

Anter grew up in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago.

He came to the U.S. legally in 1985 with his family. But a year later, Anter started getting into trouble with the law, including charges of forgery and traffic offenses, court records show.

Anter was deported in 2003. He returned to the U.S. illegally.

With no family back on the island and few prospects for work, Anter returned to Tennessee, relatives said.

He got into trouble again, trying to fake a workplace injury, and was serving time on his fraud conviction when he said Barrett confessed to killing Trimble. Anter said testifying made him unpopular with inmates, who labeled him a snitch and threatened him.

Contact Chris Echegaray at 615-664-2144.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090 ... /1001/NEWS

. Anter said testifying made him unpopular with inmates, who labeled him a snitch and threatened him.



Somehow I doubt this.

Apparently Anter is not aware of the fact that, in this country, criminals take a very dim view of other criminals who hurt children.