Thread: ICE puts detainer on NJ man accused of killing girlfriend | Irma Patrona Ic-Maaz

ICE puts detainer on N.J. man accused of killing girlfriend after ‘devil came over him’

https://www.nj.com/mercer/2019/11/ic...-over-him.html

• Updated: Nov. 14, 2019, 6:49 p.m.
• Published: Nov. 14, 2019, 6:17 p.m.

Pablo Choc-Caal
Mercer County Prosecutor's Office

• Joe Brandt | For NJ.com

The man who told police the “devil came over him” the night he allegedly strangled his girlfriend to death in Trenton will remain in jail as his case moves through the courts, a judge ruled Thursday.

Pablo Choc-Caal, 20, appeared before Judge Robert W. Bingham II in Superior Court of Mercer County for his detention hearing on a charge that he murdered Irma Patrona Lc-Maaz, 18, by choking her with an extension cord.

www.nj.com/mercer/2019/11/18-year-olds-boyfriend-strangled-her-to-death-with-an-electrical-cord-cops-say.html

Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Kathleen Petrucci moved to hold Choc-Caal at the Mercer County Correctional Center through future court proceedings. Petrucci said holding Choc-Caal in jail was justifiable to secure his appearance in court and because he faces a possibility of life in prison if convicted of the offense.

Nicole Carlo, Choc-Caal’s attorney, said he maintained his innocence but would not fight prosecutors’ wish he remain in jail for his case.

“There is an immigration detainer on him,” Carlo said. “No matter the outcome of his hearing, he would be detained.”

The detainer, filed by federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, would request that the Mercer County Correctional Center keep Choc-Caal in custody until he could be handed over to the agency’s enforcement and removal operations. That could then result in deportation if Choc-Caal was found not to be a legal resident.

Police and jails are allowed limited cooperation with ICE under the state’s Immigrant Trust Directive. Jails can honor ICE detainers when the person in question faces a serious charge, but are forbidden from holding people charged with minor crimes, among other rules in the directive that went into effect in March this year.