The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking into why the suspect in the murder of a Norwich woman was not deported to his native Haiti before the murder as he was supposed to be.
Jean Jacques, a 41-year-old Haitian national, is accused of stabbing and killing 25-year-old Casey Chadwick on June 15, 2015.
Jacques who served a 17-year prison sentence in Montville for attempted murder and was released five months earlier. in January 2015 and the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement had ordered him deported, but that did not happen.
According to the Norwich Bulletin, ICE officials said Jacques was unable produce identity documents that the Haitian government was requiring before taking the convicted felon back. The deportation process needs cooperation of local law enforcement, corrections agencies and the receiving nation; in this case, Haiti.
After Chadwick was killed, her mother demanded information on why he was not deported and several elected officials in Connecticut began demanding answers from Immigration and Homeland Security officials in Washington, D.C.
On Thursday, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney said that the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security has opened an inquiry into ICE’s failure to deport Jacques.
“We are pleased that the Office of the Inspector General has heeded our call and will now conduct a thorough, independent inquiry of this deeply troubling case. It is unacceptable that ICE failed to remove a convicted attempted murderer subject to a final deportation order— a measure that would have saved the life of Casey Chadwick. ICE’s responses thus far to our repeated inquiries into this case have been incomplete and unsatisfactory, and we hope that this independent inquiry will finally uncover the facts surrounding this tragedy, enabling reforms necessary to ensure that this never happens again,” a statement from Blumenthal, Murphy and Courtney says.
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Jacques has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and is due back in court on March 1 for a pre-trial hearing.
