Twice-deported Belizean national with 3 prior felony convictions indicted for illegally reentering the US

LOS ANGELES – A twice-deported Belizean national who is currently serving a nine-year sentence in a California prison for a domestic violence-related conviction was charged today with one felony count of illegal reentry into the United States following his deportation.

Akeem Garnett, 37, a.k.a. “Akeen Dean Garnett” and “Emerson Edmund Hewitt,” whose most recent residence was in Beverly Hills, was named in a one-count federal grand jury indictment that alleges he illegally reentered the United States.

This case is the result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Los Angeles.

Garnett is charged with reentering and remaining in the United States knowingly and voluntarily without having obtained permission from the United States Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security following his deportation.

According to the indictment, Garnett was deported from the United States September 1, 2016 and November 16, 2017. He was most-recently found in Los Angeles County April 9, 2019.

Garnett’s criminal history includes a conviction in Los Angeles Superior Court for attempted first-degree residential burglary in 2011, for which he was sentenced to two years in state prison, according to the indictment. In 2012, Garnett was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court of first-degree residential burglary with enhancements for committing the offense while on bail and for the benefit of a street gang, the indictment alleges. He was sentenced to nine years in state prison for that offense, the indictment states.

Currently, Garnett is incarcerated at North Kern State Prison in Delano after being convicted in July 2019 of corporal injury on a spouse, with an enhancement for personally causing great bodily injury.

Garnett is expected to be brought to federal court in Los Angeles to face the federal illegal reentry charge in the coming months. If convicted, he faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

ICE ERO is focused on removing public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, as well as individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws, including those who illegally reentered the country after being removed and immigration fugitives ordered removed by federal immigration judges.

This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California’s General Crimes Section.