A previously convicted human smuggler, Nicole Shermaine Martinez, received a slap on the wrist yesterday from US District Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson after a jury found Martinez guilty of Conspiracy to Transport Illegal Aliens and Transportation of Illegal Aliens on November 8, 2023
Martinez was sentenced to a mere 27 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Martinez also was sentenced to six months in prison for violating conditions of her federal probation from a prior alien smuggling conviction.
On January 18, 2023, Martinez picked up two undocumented non-citizens, including a 17-year-old unaccompanied minor, near the village of Menagers Dam on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. She was apprehended by United States Border Patrol agents as she was driving the individuals further into the United States.
Martinez had previously been convicted of alien smuggling after she transported four undocumented non-citizens, including two in the trunk of her car, also through the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. Martinez was placed on five years of probation but violated her conditions of probation by committing the new offense five months after she was sentenced.