Illegal alien convicted of unlawful reentry identity theft and firearms possession

Anchorage, Alaska - U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that a citizen of the Dominican Republic was convicted by a federal jury of 12 criminal offenses. 

Javier Martinez, 48, was convicted of one count of reentry after deportation, five counts of making false claims of United States citizenship, five counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of possession of a firearm by an illegal alien. 

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Bradley, who prosecuted the case, Martinez was deported from Miami to the Dominican Republic in 1992, but later unlawfully returned to the United States.  Evidence at trial matched the defendant’s fingerprints to those of the person removed in 1992.  Martinez was also convicted of illegally using the name Victor Rodriguez Flores, a resident of Puerto Rico, to apply for an Alaska identification card and to obtain employment at Anchorage hotels including: the Sheraton; the Embassy Suites; the Quality Inn; and the Millennium Hotel.  Evidence presented at trial showed that Martinez falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen on application forms filed with the Alaska DMV and each of the hotels where he worked. 

Martinez was also convicted of possession of a firearm, a Ruger .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol.  Illegal aliens are prohibited from possessing firearms under federal law, as are convicted felons, drug addicts, and fugitives from justice.  Witnesses testified at trial that Martinez brought the pistol to the Millennium Hotel on October 29, 2011, after having been fired from his job, and used it to shoot Kerry Fadely his former supervisor.  The firearm was recovered at the scene along with a letter from Martinez explaining the reasons he was unhappy working at the hotel.  The letter directed the Millennium Hotel to send his final paycheck to the Anchorage jail.  Martinez faces first degree murder charges in state court in connection with the shooting. 

The defendant testified, claiming that he was never actually deported from the United States in 1992, because after being placed on the flight by immigration officers, he went out the back of the plane and into the terminal.  Two special agents from Homeland Security Investigations testified at trial that Martinez had admitted to them that he was deported in 1992.  They also testified that when they asked Martinez about the firearm he left at the Millennium Hotel, he stated that it was easier to buy a gun in Anchorage than to buy a pack of cigarettes or a six pack of beer.   

Martinez faces up to 20 years of imprisonment on the reentry charge because he was deported following a felony drug trafficking conviction.  He faces up to ten years on the firearms charge, five years on each of the false claim of citizenship charges, and a mandatory consecutive two years prison for the identity theft charges. Chief U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Beistline set the sentencing for August 27, 2013. 

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and by officers of the Anchorage Police Department.