By Kristin Owens
The Salt Lake Tribune
A former Utah Valley State College student was sentenced Thursday to serve one more month in jail and three years of probation for felony theft. The 20-year-old will likely be deported to Ethiopia before he finishes that sentence, attorneys said.
Kidus Chane Yohannes was convicted in February of third-degree felony possession of his roommate’s credit card. Two additional felony charges of buying guns with a false identification number were dropped in December.
Judge Gary Stott denied a motion by attorney Richard Gale to reduce the felony charge to a class A misdemeanor.
Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander said reducing the charge might have allowed Yohannes to avoid penalties associated with a felony conviction, like deportation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a hold on Yohannes, which means federal authorities likely are planning to begin deportation proceedings, Grunander said.
Yohannes is in the United States on political asylum from Ethiopia, which could complicate deportation, Grunander said.
Yohannes is purportedly “consumed with violent depictions of the death of United States military servicemen, as well as human execution by gunfire,” according to 4th District Court documents. He also allegedly made statements about killing a police officer, according to court documents.
Those statements contributed to the Utah County Attorney’s Office’s determination to get a felony conviction, which ensures that Yohannes can never again legally possess a gun in the United States, Grunander said.
Stott sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail, with credit for time served since his June arrest.
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FORUM | 3 Comments
Very concerned!
Some times we can find some bad eggs among us Ethiopians; we have had good names in this and in other countries. You, my friend Ethiopians, let us work hard and achieve the American dreams; this is a land of many opportunities, and most of us Ethiopians abhor theft, deception, violence, and laziness. Let us abide by the law of the land and do not give a hard time to our good hostess – America the beautiful!
[Reply]
March 29th, 2008 at 10:06 AM
What the lost generation. work ,work work. labour created man him self. we , ethiopians are very poor every where comparatively with other countries. Let us stop the culture of talk and start to develope the culture of work, honestness, truthfullness, , fairness and loaylity. stealing , decieving, cheating,killing for the sake of money,laziness are not ethiopians character. let us be our fathers and fore fathers children. let give respect for our religion, culture langauge and tradition. if we want to be or act like them [ the westren], they will never accept us as their part .
[Reply]
March 29th, 2008 at 1:38 PM
What is the purpose of advertising such bad and unfortunate stories? ER? What good will it do to our community? to our children? is this something to be proud of? This is something i am seeing more and more of, but when you announce it more and more, our community then our children will become “desensitized” and i am afraid the children will think it is ok to copy cat. PLease do not post such stories, if you think you must help, help in your private way. This will do no good to our image and culture. PLease stop!!!!
[Reply]
March 31st, 2008 at 10:14 AM