Víctor Pérez Fernández, leader of the drug-trafficking gang 'La Familia' who took part in the killing of Police sergeant Eliezer Ramos Vélez, claimed on Wednesday his right to a court-appointed attorney to appeal the 45-year prison sentence imposed by federal judge María Antongiorgi Jordán in Puerto Rico’s federal District Court. Pérez Fernández had pleaded guilty to two counts under a plea deal with federal prosecutors recommending a sentence of 29 to 34 years, but the judge imposed 45 years.
In a short notice signed Tuesday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo, he said he would appeal the judgment and sentence issued February 20, requesting counsel under the Criminal Justice Act; the judge accepted the request, though the record does not name the assigned lawyer. He was represented at trial proceedings by former federal prosecutor María Domínguez.
No formal appeal appears registered in the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. At sentencing, the judge acknowledged imposing a sentence above the recommended guidelines without justifying it in the record. He will serve the term in an Atlanta, Georgia prison, must complete substance-abuse programs, and faces 10 years of supervised release.
Accomplices Luis Nomar Isaac Sánchez, known as CDobleta; Olvin O’Neill Concepción Tapia; Daniel J. López Vega, alias 'Dany'; and Andyel González Sáez also pleaded guilty: Concepción Tapia and López Vega got 40 years, González Sáez 28, and Isaac Sánchez has not been sentenced. The gang trafficked heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, marijuana, Tramadol and Clonazepam from 2021 in public housing in Carolina and San Juan.