An illegally present Jamaica national was indicted in the Middle District of Florida May 24 on multiple felony charges for assault on a federal official as well as being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.
The charges follow an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
According to court documents, Oniel Christopher Russell, a/k/a OG Russell, 39, an illegally present Jamaica national, threatened to kill an employee of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by phone in October 2016 after posting a video of himself called “cop killer” on YouTube.
(O G aka Oniel Russell -Cop killer. By O.G. Russell entertainment courtesy of YouTube. Posted on Oct 23, 2015.)
Prior to this incident, Russell had previously been found in possession of a Ruger firearm by deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in August 2013. It is a felony for an illegally present foreign national to possess a firearm.
ERO deportation officers subsequently executed an administrative arrest warrant for Russell on immigration charges April 25, during which Russell resisted arrest in an attempt to flee by dragging a deportation officer into a wall who was attempting to handcuff him.
Russell was eventually taken into custody.
If convicted on all counts, Russell faces a maximum penalty of 18 years in federal prison.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
ICE has filed an immigration detainer against Russell and will seek to take him into custody to place him into removal proceedings following the resolution of the criminal charges he presently faces.
This case will be prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina R. Downes, on assignment from the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, ICE, with the office of Acting U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow, Middle District Florida.
