Honduran National Sentenced to Two Years for Illegal Reentry
Yelson Zachary Matamoros Quinonez received a two-year federal prison sentence following a guilty plea for illegal reentry.
3 reports on this incident · first at Aug 18, 2026, 4:57 p.m. ET
This case is not concluded. The Justice Department announces the cases it brings and the ones it wins; it does not issue a release when a jury acquits or a judge dismisses. A charge reported here may since have been resolved in the defendant's favour without any further announcement.
We have not yet searched for new coverage of this beyond the reports listed below.
Earlier reports
Aug 18, 2026, 5:08 p.m. ET
Honduran National Sentenced to Two Years for Illegal Reentry
On August 18, 2026, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara sentenced 32-year-old Honduran citizen Yelson Zachary Matamoros Quinonez to two years in federal prison for illegal reentry by a deported alien, according to court records from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced the sentence. Matamoros Quinonez had pleaded guilty on May 11, 2026.
According to official court documents, Matamoros Quinonez was arrested and convicted of aggravated battery in 2019. After serving his sentence, he was deported to Honduras in 2021. In 2026, he was found voluntarily back in the United States despite not receiving consent from the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security to reapply for admission.
The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Special Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Wheeler, III and Assistant United States Attorney Abigail King prosecuted the case.
Aug 18, 2026, 4:57 p.m. ETFirst report
Honduran National Sentenced to Two Years for Illegal Reentry
According to official court records released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida, 32-year-old Honduran citizen Yelson Zachary Matamoros Quinonez was sentenced on August 18, 2026, to two years in federal prison for illegal reentry by a deported alien. Matamoros Quinonez had previously pleaded guilty on May 11, 2026, in federal district court before U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara. U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced the sentence in a developing case. Court records show that Matamoros Quinonez was arrested and convicted of aggravated battery in 2019. Following the completion of his sentence, he was deported to Honduras in 2021. In 2026, he was found voluntarily back in the United States without having obtained permission from the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security to reapply for admission. The matter was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Special Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Wheeler, III and Assistant United States Attorney Abigail King handled the prosecution.
Was this report accurate and useful?
Sources
Revision history
- Version 118 Aug 2026, 21:08current
First published.
- Version 118 Aug 2026, 20:57current
First published.
- Version 118 Aug 2026, 21:22current
First published.
How we work
This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.
Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.
Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.
None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.