In a turn of events for a case that has captured attention due to its tragic outcome, Jose Paxtor-Oxlaj, a 45-year-old Guatemalan national, has entered a guilty plea to charges of illegal reentry into the United States after a previous deportation. The announcement was made public by U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester, as disclosed in a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Western District of Oklahoma.
Paxtor-Oxlaj was previously indicted by a federal Grand Jury on September 17, 2024, following a vehicular accident near Elk City, Oklahoma, on November 21, 2023, in which he was the driver. According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, the crash resulted in the deaths of his six passengers, five among them children, and left a seventh passenger critically injured. He had been ordered removed from the country by an Immigration Judge on June 29, 2010, and was removed to Guatemala on July 9, 2010.
During the proceedings, investigators discovered that Paxtor-Oxlaj did not have legal authorization to reenter the United States after his deportation. In a grim acknowledgment of the consequences of his actions, U.S. Attorney Troester said on U.S. Attorney's Office, "Six individuals would be alive today, including five children, and another would not have been critically injured, if this defendant did not illegally reenter the United States after his deportation." He commended the collaborative efforts of federal and state law enforcement officials and prosecutors involved in the case.
Paxtor-Oxlaj's admittance of guilt came on March 21, where he conceded to being in the country unlawfully without consent from either the Attorney General, or the Secretary of Homeland Security for reapplication of entry to the United States. Sentencing in the federal case is expected to follow in the next 60 to 90 days. On a state level, Paxtor-Oxlaj has already faced justice, having been convicted of six counts of first-degree manslaughter and one count of causing an accident with great bodily injury without a valid driver's license in the Beckham County District Court. He currently serves a four-year sentence in state prison.
The thorough investigation that led to Paxtor-Oxlaj's convictions was a collaboration between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brandon Hale and Elizabeth Joynes undertaking the prosecution responsibilities.
