A Guatemalan man who illegally returned to the United States after a prior deportation has been sentenced to four years in federal prison.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa, 39‑year‑old David Pineda‑Medrano of Rolfe was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Sioux City. He had pleaded guilty last October to being a felon found in the United States after illegally reentering the country.
Information presented at his plea and sentencing hearings shows Pineda‑Medrano was removed from the U.S. in June of 2022. Before that removal, he had been convicted in the District of Columbia of attempted first‑degree sexual abuse and sexual abuse of a child or minor, serving more than four years in prison.
At some point after his 2022 removal, federal officials say Pineda‑Medrano illegally reentered the country. He was later located in Rolfe after being arrested and convicted in Iowa for assault causing bodily injury or mental illness. Court documents say he struck a victim in the head with the flat side of an 18‑inch machete, causing injury, and then held the blade to the victim’s throat while threatening to kill him.
U.S. District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand sentenced Pineda‑Medrano to 48 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service until he is transferred to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in northern Iowa and investigated by the Enforcement and Removal Operations division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
