Federal authorities in Texas have arrested a former Bessemer woman who was convicted of murder in Birmingham and has previously been deported from the U.S. four different times.
Maribel Martinez Garcia, a 40-year-old Mexican national, was arrested Thursday at a home in North Houston, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston.
At the time of her arrest, according to an ICE news release, Martinez was in possession of a counterfeit Social Security card and lawful permanent resident card.
“This arrest is just another example of the critical public safety function that ICE ERO serves in our local communities while enforcing our nation’s immigration laws,” said ERO Houston Field Office Director Bret A. Bradford. “Thanks to hypervigilance and outstanding teamwork between ERO Houston and ERO New Orleans we were able to quickly locate this convicted murderer who has repeatedly violated our nation’s immigration laws and safely take her into custody before she could hurt anyone else.”
Authorities said it isn’t known when Martinez first illegally entered the U.S., but she was arrested on April 13, 2000, by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Houston.
On Aug. 3, 2000, an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered Martinez removed from the U.S. to Mexico, which took place the following month.
‘Martinez illegally reentered the U.S. on an unknown date and at an unknown location, ICE officials said. On Jan. 1, 2004, she was encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol near Progreso, Texas, and voluntarily returned to Mexico.
Martinez illegally reentered the United States for a third time on an unknown date and at an unknown location. On Jan. 10, 2004, she was encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol near Progreso and voluntarily returned to Mexico.
Martinez was arrested by Birmingham police on New Year’s Day 2007 on a charge of capital murder in the shooting death of 32-year-old Francisco Ostiquin Cervantes, 32, of Pelham.
Cervantes’ body was found at 9:31 p.m. on New Year’s Eve in the 1800 block of 27th Avenue North.
Pelham police were led to the scene where Cervantes’ body was discovered and then notified Birmingham police.
Hoover police and the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, which includes marshals and officers from several area police departments, were also involved in the investigation.
Martinez was among three people arrested in the slaying. The others were Samuel Candido Gomez, now 41, Oscar Alejandro Quintero-Barron, now 39.
Authorities said in 2007 that Cervantes was driving with his two children, 3 and 7 years old, around 6:30 p.m. Saturday and picked up Quintero-Barron outside a store in Hoover to give him a ride. They drove to north Birmingham, where Cervantes and Quinter-Barron walked into the woods, leaving the kids alone in the car.
The 7-year-old heard sounds that investigators believed were gunshots and then a male suspect came back to the car alone.
Quintero-Barron drove the children to a restaurant on Ninth Avenue North in Bessemer that caters to Hispanics, leaving the youngsters in the car and explaining he was going to get the kids a meal at McDonald’s.
About 8:30 p.m. that Saturday, Cervantes’ wife received a phone call from a man who said that her husband had been in an accident and asked her to pick up their children outside the Bessemer restaurant.
The woman went to the restaurant and picked up the children, then reported her husband missing to Pelham police.
Hoover police investigators also got involved and called in the task force, which lends assistance in missing persons cases.
Garcia was Quintero-Barron’s girlfriend. Quinter-Barron worked for the victim.
Charging documents say Cervantes was killed while he was being robbed of a necklace and cash.
All three suspects pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of murder. The two men remain in Alabama prisons.
Garcia received a 20-year sentence with three years to serve.
Upon her release from state prison in 2010, according to ICE officials, she was taken into custody in Birmingham and convicted for illegal reentry into the U.S. She was deported to Mexico on Aug. 19, 2010.
Authorities said they don’t know when she entered the U.S. the most recent time. She is being held in the Montgomery Processing Center in Texas for illegal reentry and faces additional charges.
“This case demonstrates the impact ERO has on public safety every day, and now this dangerous, repetitive criminal is off our streets,” said ERO New Orleans Field Office Director Mellissa Harper. “ERO will continue to focus on our mission of removing criminal noncitizens from our communities.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-31 07:32:00
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