A 50-year-old Jamaican man, Jason Caston Williams, also known as Jason Fitzgerald and Terry Barrington Stewart, faces up to 20 years in a United States prison after pleading guilty to illegally re-entering the country following a prior deportation.
The United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Vanessa Roberts Avery, announced on Thursday that Williams entered the guilty plea a day earlier in front of US District Judge Omar A. Williams in Hartford.
According to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office, Williams was initially admitted to the US as a lawful permanent resident in October 1982. However, his legal troubles began in June 1991, when he was convicted in Connecticut state court of second-degree robbery. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with the execution suspended, and five years of probation.
Williams later violated his probation, leading to a sentence of three years in prison in March 1997. His legal issues continued when, in September 1997, he was convicted in New York for second-degree burglary and criminal possession of a weapon. He was sentenced to 30 months to five years in prison for those charges.
“In May 2001, after an immigration judge ordered him removed from the US, he was deported to Jamaica,” the US Attorney’s Office stated.
Despite his deportation, Williams unlawfully returned to the US. The exact date of his re-entry was not disclosed. On October 20, 2022, he was arrested by Norwalk police in Connecticut for second-degree assault, involving a knife attack on another individual. Williams was convicted on October 11, 2023, and sentenced to five years in prison, suspended after two years, with an additional three years of probation.
In relation to his most recent guilty plea for illegal re-entry, the US Attorney’s Office noted that no sentencing date has been set. However, “Williams faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years for illegal re-entry.”
Williams remains in custody, and the case was investigated by the US Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
