(The Center Square) — An illegal immigrant from Mexico, who had previous convictions for violent crimes, has been sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to illegally reentering America.
Otoniel Lugo-Campos, who was arrested in Nevada, will also have to serve three years of supervised release after finishing his sentence. The Mexican national was previously deported twice from the U.S.
Lugo-Campos has a history of violent incidents, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
On March 8, 2021, Lugo-Campos entered into his former girlfriend’s apartment, where he shot her, her new boyfriend and a neighbor, according to the DOJ's court filing in the U.S. District Court for Nevada. The Center Square obtained a copy of the court document, which said it is not known how Lugo-Campos entered the home. The DOJ said he didn't have a key.
The DOJ's court filing also said Lugo-Campos told his ex-girlfriend that if he went to jail, “he would ‘get out’ and then ‘take [her] and [her] family out.’”
When Nevada Highway Patrol arrested Lugo-Campos a week later, law enforcement found a 9mm handgun “beneath the steering wheel panel,” the DOJ noted in its document filed in the U.S. District Court.
For this incident, Lugo-Campos was convicted of battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm, the DOJ said. He was also convicted of discharge of a firearm from or within a structure or vehicle, according to the court filing.
Less than two months before this, Lugo-Campos showed up at her apartment “unexpectedly” while being intoxicated, the DOJ's court document says. The DOJ said Lugo Campos asked her for sex, but she said no, which resulted in Lugo-Campos beating her with a 3-foot pipe.
Due to this, she ended up needing stitches because of the beating, the DOJ said.
The DOJ's court filing noted after the ex-girlfriend moved on from the “short dating relationship,” the foreign national shot her three times.
While he was in state custody for the shooting, law enforcement discovered that Lugo-Campos was in America illegally, the DOJ said.
This legal case is not the first time the American justice system has had to deal with Lugo-Campos.
The foreign national was deported from America the first time in 2000 after he pleaded guilty to a felony drug conviction and numerous probation violations, the DOJ noted in a news release.
After his first deportation, Lugo-Campos returned to America and was arrested again in 2008. This time, he robbed five convenience stores in the Las Vegas area with a large butcher knife, the DOJ said. The DOJ also said he cut two store clerks in the robberies.
For these robberies, the Mexican national was convicted of “two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon," the DOJ's court filing stated.
Lugo-Campos was deported back to Mexico in 2014 after serving his prison sentence.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Salt Lake City and its Las Vegas Sub-Office investigated this case, while the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada prosecuted it.
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