ALBUQUERQUE - Miller Eugene Francis, 59, of Albuquerque, N.M., pled guilty yesterday afternoon in federal court to violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
SORNA, also known as the Adam Walsh Protection and Safety Act, requires that a convicted sex offender register in each jurisdiction where the offender resides, where the offender is employed, or where the offender is a student, and that the sex offender maintain current registrations.
The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Francis in Sept. 2016, on a criminal complaint charging him with violating SORNA by failing to update his sex offender registration. According to the complaint, Francis was convicted in Massachusetts in 1999, of rape and abuse of a child. According to court documents, Francis registered as a sex offender in Bernalillo County, N.M., beginning in July 2003 until he left the United States in Oct. 2003. The complaint further alleged that Francis reentered the United States in Dec. 2015, and failed to update his sex offender registration in Bernalillo County from May 2016 through Aug. 2016, as required.
Francis subsequently was charged by indictment on Oct. 12, 2016, with violating SORNA by failing to update his sex offender registration in Sandoval and Bernalillo Counties, N.M., between April 1, 2016 and Sept. 20, 2016.
During yesterday’s proceedings, Francis pled guilty to the indictment. In entering the guilty plea, Francis admitted that he was convicted in Jan. 1999, of criminal offenses that required him to register under SORNA. Francis further admitted that from Oct. 2003 through Dec. 2015, he resided outside of the United States, and beginning in April 2016, he resided in New Mexico, but failed to update his sex offender registration in New Mexico as required.
At sentencing, Francis faces a maximum penalty of ten years in federal prison followed by a minimum of five years to a lifetime of supervised release. Francis will also be required to register as a sex offender when he completes his prison sentence pursuant to his previous sexual abuse conviction. A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled
This case was investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Raquel Ruiz-Velez.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
