ANNISTON– A federal judge sentenced Eladio Pascual-Gaspar to 31 months in prison for illegal reentry after deportation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama announced the sentence Friday.

Pascual-Gaspar, a 28-year-old Guatemalan national, pleaded guilty to the federal charge. U.S. District Judge Corey L. Maze imposed the sentence, according to the release.

Prosecutors said Pascual-Gaspar entered the United States without authorization in May 2015 as an unaccompanied minor. Officials then released him to a sponsor under an order of release on recognizance in June 2015.

Later, in April 2021, Pascual-Gaspar pleaded guilty in a Madison County, Mississippi, court to aiding and abetting armed robbery. Afterward, the government removed him from the United States in May 2023, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

In June 2026, Talladega police encountered a 15-year-old driver in a car registered under the name Henry Vegas Mondragon, the release said. Police then towed the vehicle. Pascual-Gaspar later came to the tow lot to claim it. Prosecutors said he presented Guatemalan identification and documents bearing that name, which they described as false.

U.S. Attorney Phillip W. Williams Jr. said Pascual-Gaspar returned after deportation and engaged in further criminal activity. However, the release did not specify a separate federal charge arising from the tow-lot encounter.

Homeland Security Investigations and the Talladega County Drug Task Force investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Patrick Lamb prosecuted it. The Justice Department also listed the prosecution under its Operation Take Back America initiative.

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