Ismael Gonzalez was released from federal prison last month after serving a one- year sentence for conspiracy to transport undocumented non-U.S. citizens (UNCs) for profit. But the Douglas man did not walk free.
Instead, the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office was waiting for him at the Federal Correctional Institution – Victorville in California to execute a probation warrant issued last year by a Cochise County judge.
Court records show Gonzalez, 27, began serving a five-year term of supervised probation in 2019 for a felony of attempted armed robbery in 2016. He had already served nearly four years in prison for burglary in connection with the same incident.
But while on probation, Gonzalez and a co-defendant were charged in federal court after U.S. Border Patrol agents found five UNCs in their vehicle near Douglas in May 2021. That arrest led Gonzalez’s probation officer to file a petition to revoke probation in the old 2016 case.
Revocation of probation allows a judge to impose a jail or prison sentence on the original crime. In Gonzalez’s case, an attempted armed robbery calls for a prison term of 2 to 8.75 years under state sentencing guidelines in place in 2016.
After the Cochise County judge signed the probation warrant, the local sheriff’s office waited to execute it the minute Gonzalez was released by the Federal Bureau of Prison.
Earlier this week Gonzalez appeared via video from the Cochise County jail where he is being held without bond. He has been appointed a public defender to address the probation violation allegation in advance of the next court hearing on April 25.
