ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Aviel Gonzalez-Ruiz, 41, of Mexico, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to illegal reentry by an alien and unlawful possession of a firearm by an alien, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Alicia Jones, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Charlotte Field Division, Kyle D. Burns, Acting Special Agent in Charge of HSI in North Carolina and South Carolina, and Chief Justin J. Jacobs of the Murphy Police Department, join U.S. Attorney Ferguson in making the announcement.
According to court records and the sentencing hearing, on April 20, 2025, Gonzalez-Ruiz illegally possessed a firearm which he fired twice into the air at a motel parking lot in Murphy. Law enforcement responding to the incident recovered the firearm from Gonzalez-Ruiz’s motel room. Video surveillance from the motel’s video system shows Gonzalez-Ruiz firing the gun out the window of his car, while other people, including at least two children, were nearby. Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement determined that Gonzalez-Ruiz had been deported from the United States to Mexico on two occasions: once on or about March 2, 2010, at or near Nogales, Arizona, and again on or about September 24, 2018, at or near Brownsville, Texas.
In announcing the sentence, Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger noted Gonzalez-Ruiz’s many previous reentries after deportation, and the recklessness of firing a gun into the air near children.
Gonzalez-Ruiz remains in federal custody and will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.
In making the announcement U.S. Attorney Ferguson commended the ATF, HSI, and the Murphy Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Gast of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — Western District of North Carolina — U.S. Department of Justice press release.