Diplomat’s teen son, snared in double murder, deported back to Canada
A teenager caught up in a double shooting in Florida that left his older brother dead has been quietly deported to Canada following a remarkable standoff between U.S. federal authorities and the state judge who sentenced him, The Canadian Press has learned.
American immigration agents escorted Marc Wabafiyebazu from Miami to Montreal earlier this month where he was reunited with his mother, Roxanne Dube.
“It’s done. It’s done. It’s done,’’ Dube, a senior diplomat, said in an interview from Ottawa. “He has his life ahead of him.’’
Now 16, Wabafiyebazu is back home in Ottawa studying privately for his high school equivalency and reconnecting with family and friends as he relaunches his life shattered by the gunfire in March last year that killed Jean Wabafiyebazu, 18, and another teen.
Although authorities never accused the younger sibling of shooting anyone, he nevertheless found himself facing a minimum 40-year prison sentence on charges of felony first-degree murder. Instead, in a plea deal rarely seen before, Wabafiyebazu pleaded no contest in February to reduced charges of felony thirddegree murder.
In exchange, Circuit Judge Teresa Pooler sentenced him to in-custody boot camp, house arrest, and a minimum five years probation to be served in the United States.
What neither Pooler nor prosecutor Marie Mato seemed to have realized at the time is that federal immigration authorities would have no intention of allowing him to serve his probation in the U.S.
“They had not foreseen that at all, which created a very tense situation,’’ Dube said, her voice choking. “They were beside themselves.’’
In late July, as Wabafiyebazu was completing boot camp with flying colours, immigration authorities went to pick him up. State authorities, however, refused to hand him over without Pooler’s consent.
What followed were a series of court hearings at which Pooler and Mato made it clear they would never have signed off on the plea agreement had they known he would be deported immediately upon release.
“The court thought he would be serving five or 10 years of probation here,’’ Wabafiyebazu’s lawyer, Curt Obront, said from Miami. “The court and prosecutor were displeased that he was returning to Canada so quickly.’’
Pooler and Mato also appeared to think Dube had perjured herself in February when she promised to supervise her son’s probation in the U.S.
Dube, however, insisted she had made her promise in good faith and had been fully prepared to stay in the country for as long as her son was required to be there.
“They felt that I had misled the court (but) I couldn’t for the life of me understand where they were coming from. It was very much of a shock.’’
To avoid further complications, Dube decided to return to Canada at the end of July, leaving her son in a state known for being extremely sticky about relinquishing its grip on foreign offenders.