PHILADELPHIA – Acting United States Attorney Nelson S.T. Thayer, Jr., announced that Marlon Hodges, aka “Michael Stewart,” 50, a citizen of Jamaica, entered a plea of guilty yesterday before United States District Court Judge Anita B. Brody to one count of illegal reentry after deportation.
In February of last year, federal authorities became aware that Hodges was present in the United States after having been deported in 2016.
On March 6, 2024, the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Border Enforcement Security Task Force conducted an enforcement operation to locate the defendant. At approximately 10:30 a.m., Hodges was seen leaving a residence on the 5500 block of Walton Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and walking to a corner store on South 56th Street.
When investigators entered the store and approached the defendant, he stated that his name was Marlon Hodges and that he did not have identification. Hodges was immediately arrested and searched, and found in possession of a fraudulent Pennsylvania driver’s license bearing his photograph and the name Michael Stewart. A fingerprint check subsequently confirmed Hodges’ identity.
Investigators checked the defendant’s criminal and immigration histories and determined that, in February 2005, Hodges was convicted of first-degree assault in Orange County, New York, and sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment. That March, U.S. immigration officers issued Hodges a Notice to Appear in Immigration Court for being an alien convicted of an aggravated felony, that is, a conviction for a crime of violence for which the sentence imposed was one year or longer.
In January 2006, an immigration judge in Fishkill, New York, ordered Hodges removed from the United States to Jamaica. Upon his release from prison, Hodges was removed from the United States to Jamaica via ICE Air Operations on April 28, 2016. He illegally reentered the United States at an unknown place on an unknown date.
The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27.
The case was investigated by the HSI Border Enforcement Security Task Force and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney S. Chandler Harris.
