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Suspect faces federal court

Deported sex offender jailed

PITTSBURGH — A deported sex offender from Guatemala arrested in Butler Township last month has landed in federal court.

A federal grand jury in Pittsburgh this week indicted the defendant under the name of 30-year-old Edward Jacinto Garcia.

But in charging documents in Butler County, he is listed as Edward Esturdo Jacinto, 25.

Whatever his real name, he remains — at least for the time being — in the Butler County Prison on $120,000 bail.

The two-count federal indictment handed down Tuesday, which named Garcia, charged him with failing to maintain sexual offender registration and illegally re-entering the United States.

The suspect has been in Butler County Prison since Butler Township police arrested him for drunken driving.

He denied driving the car and gave officers a bogus name. He refused to answer questions and asked to speak to his attorney.

Police subsequently took the defendant to the state police barracks where troopers used a fingerprinting system to get his identity.

Police also learned that the suspect was a felon who was deported from the country in 2011.

According to the charging documents filed by township police, he was identified as Jacinto.

He was immediately arraigned on charges of driving under the influence and placed in the county prison on $20,000 bail.

Additionally, officials for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of DHS, faxed a detainer to the prison to hold the suspect until federal authorities decided what to do with him.

The following week, police learned that the defendant was a registered sex offender in Nebraska — something he failed to tell state police as required under Pennsylvania law.

Township police spoke to the Nebraska State Patrol, who forwarded court papers related to the suspect’s criminal record there.

The defendant, according to court documents, was convicted in 2009 of first-degree sexual assault in Platte County. The victim in that case was a 14-year-old runaway girl.

He was sentenced to 5 to 8 years in prison. He served two years of that term until being deported in 2011.

He possibly re-entered the United States in 2014, Butler Township police said.

Township police on July 16 charged the suspect with two felony counts of failing to register for the sex offender list here.

His bail was increased by $100,000. He eventually waived both charges to Butler County Court.

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