Update: On July 10, 2019 Jacques’ convictoin was overturned by the Connecticut Supreme Court.
NORWICH – The Department of Homeland Security said 20,000 criminal immigrants were released in 2015 instead of shipping them back to their native countries. One of those individuals is now awaiting sentencing in a Norwich murder he committed five months after his release.
Jean Jacques, 41, who came to the U.S. illegally from Haiti in 1996, got himself in trouble quickly, being convicted of attempted murder and serving 17 years. In a letter he sent exclusively to FOX 61, Jacques vented about time spent at detention facilities after being released from prison.
“After three months in custody of the immigration center in Boston, I was then transferred to the immigration center in Louisiana. I was then told that from this facility I would be brought back to Haiti. This still did not happen," he wrote.
Jacques added that, from the time he was released from prison in 2012, he was sent back-and-forth between Boston and Louisiana a couple of times before finally being released by immigration and customs enforcement in January 2015, just five months before killing Casey Chadwick, 25, whose boyfriend had drug dealings with Jacques.
“I do care why you found it necessary to stab my daughter 15 times and shove her in a closet,” said Wendy Hartling, Chadwick’s mother.
She testified before Congress on the deportation subject on April 28. Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security were also present.
“I have not heard one word from Homeland Security,” said Hartling.
By law, the U.S. is permitted to deny visa requests from any country that will not accept the return of these criminals. To date, that law has not been exercised, according to U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).
Jean Jacques’ attorney, Sebastian DeSantis, issued this comment:
“My client and I are adamant that he did not commit this crime. He is innocent. Regarding the deportation issue, each one of his family members were killed right in front of his eyes, because of his father’s involvement in adverse political activities. He escaped Haiti to save himself from also being killed.”
