Deported Mexican Who Lived In East Hartford Sent To Prison: Feds

HARTFORD/EAST HARTFORD, CT — A Mexican national and convicted felon who once lived in East Hartford was sentenced to prison this week for illegally re-entering the country after being deported.

Vanessa Roberts Avery, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, said Carlos Fernandez-Barritos, also known as “Ricardo Fernandez,” 30, a citizen of Mexico formerly residing in East Hartford, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford to 16 months of imprisonment.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on Dec. 11, 2014, Fernandez was sentenced in Bridgeport federal court to approximately 14 months of imprisonment, time already served, for his role in a narcotics trafficking ring.

He was removed from the U.S. to Mexico in January 2015, Avery said.

Then on Nov. 4, 2022, Fernandez was charged by Hartford police with disorderly conduct, threatening, third-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, and interfering with police.

He was released on a $20,000 bond shortly thereafter.

On March 15, 2023, the East Hartford Police Department responded to a report Fernandez had stabbed his domestic partner. Fernandez fled before the police arrived.

Fernandez has been detained since Aug. 15, 2023, when he was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with illegally reentering the U.S.

He pleaded guilty to the offense on May 3, 2024.

This matter was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie T. Levick.