Luis Green-Chavez Sentenced to One Year in Prison

United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Luis Green-Chavez, age 19 of Grand Island, Nebraska, was sentenced on Friday, May 10, 2013, by the Honorable Joseph F. Bataillon to a term of imprisonment of 12 months and one day, which will be followed by one year of supervised release, and he was ordered to pay a special assessment of $100.

Luis Green-Chavez was found guilty, after a jury trial in November, of being an accessory after the fact to Alexander Martinez’s threat on a federal law enforcement officer. The evidence at trial showed that the Central Nebraska Drug and Safe Streets Task Force was conducting a search of a home on August 6, 2012, in Grand Island, Nebraska, after receiving information that a person was distributing marijuana from the home. While they were conducting the search of the home, Luis Green-Chavez drove Alexander Martinez to the home. Alexander Martinez was upset that the police were searching the home. Alexander Martinez got out of Luis Green-Chavez’s pickup truck and confronted law enforcement officers at the scene. As Alexander Martinez was leaving, he threatened an investigator with the Central Nebraska Drug and Safe Streets Task Force. The investigator, as a member of the Central Nebraska Drug and Safe Streets Task Force, is deputized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a federal law enforcement officer. Alexander Martinez then got back into the pickup truck being driven by the Luis Green-Chavez, and they left.

Not long after they left, Luis Green-Chavez’s pickup truck was spotted by members of the same task force. The pickup truck was still being driven by Luis Green-Chavez, and Alexander Martinez was still a passenger in the vehicle. When the police attempted a traffic stop, to arrest Alexander Martinez for the threat, Luis Green-Chavez fled and a vehicle pursuit ensued. The testimony at trial showed that Luis Green-Chavez drove through residential neighborhoods at estimated speeds of more than twice the limit and drove through at least a couple intersections controlled by stop signs without slowing down or stopping. Due to the danger posed by the pursuit, the police chose not to follow the vehicle closely, and the police lost sight of the vehicle temporarily. Soon after, a Hall County Sheriff’s Deputy spotted the pickup truck, which was being driven in a reckless manner on Capital Avenue, near the area of Shady Bend Road and Highway 30. After a short pursuit by the deputy, Luis Green-Chavez eventually stopped. At that time he was the only occupant, having let Alexander Martinez and another person out of the vehicle moments earlier. Alexander Martinez was located and arrested a couple days later. Luis Green-Chavez’s charge and the evidence at trial focused on his efforts to help Alexander Martinez avoid being arrested after Martinez threatened the federal officer.

The Central Nebraska Drug and Safe Streets Task Force is an FBI sponsored task force, composed of law enforcement officers from the Hall County Sheriff’s Department, Grand Island Police Department, Nebraska State Patrol, Adams County Sheriff’s Department, Hastings Police Department, Kearney Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, and the FBI.