BOSTON - A Boston man was sentenced today in federal court for making a false statement in a passport application, which he used to elude capture for second-degree murder.

Arnaldo Lopes, 43, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro to two years of probation following his state prison sentence for voluntary manslaughter. On March 19, 2012, Lopes pleaded guilty to the federal charges.

On or about Oct. 12, 1995, a warrant was issued for Lopes’s arrest in Boston in connection with a fatal injury two days earlier. When the arrest warrant issued, Lopes had already fled the area. While Lopes remained wanted in Massachusetts, he obtained a Maryland driver’s license and a New York State birth certificate, both in the name of a United States citizen whose initials are M.E.H., whom Lopes knew to be a real person. On or about June 1, 2001, Lopes was indicted for second-degree murder in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. A few weeks later, Lopes appeared at the Hyattsville, Maryland post office and presented a completed passport application, along with the birth certificate and Maryland driver’s license in the name of M.E.H. Lopes received a U.S. passport in M.E.H.’s name and used this passport to leave and re-enter the United States at least twice, including on April 30, 2007, during his re-entry into the country at Miami International Airport. He was arrested the same day at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport, as he disembarked from a connecting flight from Miami to Baltimore.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District of Maryland and Todd R. Ziccarelli, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security - Boston Field Office made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott L. Garland of Ortiz’s Cybercrimes Unit and Robert Hur of Rosenstein’s Office.

 

 

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