He's a convicted killer, sentenced to serve 25 years in a U.S. jail, but thanks to the United States deportation policy, Lester Gillett is a free man in Belize tonight.
According to a release posted today on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department's website, the 35 year old was deported on Tuesday. He was received by Belizean authorities, registered at the Crimes Intelligence Unit and then set free. He is to check in at the C.I.U. Office in Belize every Friday and we have confirmed that he did so today.
According to the U.S. Immigration Release, Gillett entered the United States on a visitor's visa in 1988, and stayed there illegally. Authorities didn't catch up with him until April of 1997, when he was convicted of first degree murder. He pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder in Cook County Circuit Court for shooting and killing Mark Anderson. He was serving his sentence until U.S. immigration agents found him at the Joliet Correctional Center. The release quotes field office director Debbie Achim who said that "as a convicted first-degree murderer, Gillett represents a threat to public safety."
