The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the unlawful reentry conviction of a Tulsa man who says he was trafficked and held for years, turning down his attempt to have a jury weigh a duress defense. The ruling connects his account of long-term abuse to an April 2023 escape, a Tulsa County booking, and a custody transfer that landed him in federal immigration proceedings.
Federal indictment and case number
A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Oklahoma indicted Fabian Cobos Carpena for unlawful reentry in 2024, according to a June 6, 2024 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma. The indictment cites a prior removal in 2013 and lists the federal criminal case number as 24-CR-173.
Appeals court lays out alleged trafficking and custody sequence
In a published opinion, the Tenth Circuit recounts Cobos Carpena’s testimony that a woman named Rosanna Miranda Torres trafficked him into the United States in 2010 and again in 2013, that armed men threatened and controlled him, and that he fled her apartment on April 30, 2023. According to the opinion, Tulsa County booking staff discovered his 2013 deportation during intake and then transferred him to ICE custody, which set off the federal unlawful reentry case. The court notes that he later filed a T-visa application and sought counseling.
Judge Scott Matheson wrote that Torres said Cobos Carpena’s “sole job was to obey her every word,” but the panel ultimately concluded that the evidence in the record did not justify instructing a jury on a duress defense.
Local reporting and appellate outcome
Local outlet NonDoc covered the opinion this week, outlining the court’s timeline and its refusal to permit a duress instruction. Court documents and filings show that Cobos Carpena entered a conditional guilty plea to unlawful reentry, kept his right to appeal the district court’s duress ruling, and received a sentence of time served before being surrendered to immigration authorities.
Legal standard and survivor-relief context
The appeals court reiterated that a duress defense in this context requires proof of an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury, a well-grounded fear that the threat will be carried out, and no reasonable chance to escape. Applying that standard, the panel found the evidence lacking.
For immigration context, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services explains that T nonimmigrant status, commonly called the T visa, can provide relief to certain qualifying victims of human trafficking who cooperate with law enforcement. In the Tulsa area, local agencies such as Domestic Violence Intervention Services (DVIS) offer counseling and other support to survivors.
The Tenth Circuit’s decision keeps Cobos Carpena’s conviction in place at the appellate level for now and effectively ends the duress fight in that court. Defense attorneys have preserved the option to seek further review, and legal and advocacy circles are likely to watch whether the case fuels policy debates about how local jail booking and immigration referrals intersect when people who report trafficking are taken into custody.
