Schemers get time served

*Pair, illegal immigrants, likely to be deported*

Monday, November 05, 2007

By BRENDAN KIRBY
* Staff Reporter*

Two people implicated in a fake drivers license conspiracy were
sentenced to time served last week, but they face almost-certain
deportation to their home countries.

Davon Gayupov, a native of the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan who
admitted to taking undocumented workers from Mobile to Mississippi for
fake licenses, gave sworn testimony to prosecutors Friday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Mobile asked for the testimony so
prosecutors will have a record they can use against Gayupov's
co-defendants after he is deported.

Gayupov, who speaks six languages, originally came to the United States
on a work visa. But he stayed after the visa expired and got a job
painting a casino on the Mississippi coast. That's where he met Alfred
Joseph Green, according to his lawyer, Arthur Madden.

Gayupov told Green that he needed an ID. Green told him that his wife,
an employee at the Mississippi drivers license center in Tupelo, could
help.

Gayupov paid Green $1,800 for a license and then started referring other
illegal immigrants to Green and his wife, Melissa Marizette-Green,
according to court records.

Green and Marizette-Green have both pleaded guilty in the case and are
scheduled to be sentenced later this year.

DuBose also sentenced Baldemar Esquivel to time served Friday, ordering
that he be turned over to immigration authorities. She noted that he was
not involved in the sale of the licenses.

"He was simply one of the immigrants who went to Mississippi to get a
driver's license. ... Although this was a serious crime, I do believe
that time served is appropriate," DuBose said.


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