Arturo Velazquez trial for vehicular homicide reset

On Thursday, a hearing was held for Arturo Velazquez, who was arrested in September of 2016 for vehicular homicide.
During the hearing, the State moved to reset Velazquez’s matter in Evangeline Parish’s district court so that the illegal alien can first answer to his crime of re-entry following removal or deportation in the United States District Court in the Western District of Louisiana.
According to federal court documents, after being arrested in Evangeline Parish, “a Deportation and Removal Officer (DRO) working for the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) found the defendant in pretrial detention at the Evangeline Parish Detention Center.”
Once the DRO learned that the defendant had an existing United States Alien file (A-File), the officer discovered that Velazquez “was a native citizen and national of Mexico,” and that “on or about December 8, 2012, a United States Immigration Court ordered his (Velazquez) removal” from the U.S.
In the stipulated factual basis document, it also stated that “on or about March 7, 2013, ICE officers physically removed him to Mexico.”
The document went on to say that “at no time has the defendant received the express consent of the Attorney General of the United States, or the Secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security, to apply for admission to the United States, nor has he at any time been paroled into the United States.”
In May of 2017, Velazquez entered a plea of guilty in federal court for the charge of re-entry by an alien following removal.
His sentencing has been set for August 25, 2017.
Velazquez’s probing for his vehicular homicide charge in Evangeline Parish has been re-set for February 15, 2018 with his trial date set for February 26, 2018.