Ecuadorian manslaughter convict sentenced in Connecticut for illegally returning to United States

Darwin Francisco Quituizaca-Duchitanga, 40, of Ecuador, was sentenced in New Haven on Wednesday to over a year in prison for illegally reentering the United States.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — An Ecuadorian man with a previous manslaughter conviction was sentenced in Connecticut on Wednesday for illegally returning to the United States after being deported.

Darwin Francisco Quituizaca-Duchitanga, 40, is a citizen of Ecuador who also goes by “Darwin Duchitanga-Quituizaca” and “Juan Mendez-Gutierrez.”

According to a report from the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut on Wednesday, he was sentenced in New Haven federal court to a year and a day in prison.

Court documents and statements made show that in December 2003, Quituizaca was found by U.S. Border Patrol personnel while using the alias Juan Mendez-Gutierrez. He was issued a voluntary return to Mexico after claiming to be a Mexican citizen.

Sometime over the next 15 years, Quituizaca illegally returned to the U.S.

Connecticut State Police arrested him in March 2018 while he was using the alias Darwin Duchitanga-Quituizaca. He was charged with offenses connected to a fatal motor vehicle crash on Interstate 91 in North Haven in March 2017.

On Aug. 30, 2018, personnel with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement came upon Quituizaca in Meriden. They arrested him on an administrative warrant while he was at liberty awaiting trial in his state case.

In September 2018, an immigration judge ordered Quituizaca to be removed from the U.S. and brought back to Ecuador, but he was then taken to state custody to face his pending charges.

In January 2019, Quituizaca was convicted in Connecticut Superior Court of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

Quituizaca was released from state prison on an unknown date. Prosecutors say that on Aug. 15, 2023, ICE encountered and arrested him on an administrative warrant of removal in Meriden.

He was taken back to Ecuador in September 2023 but illegally returned to the U.S. and was arrested by ICE personnel again in Meriden on June 28, 2025. Quituizaca has been detained since this arrest.

On July 30, 2025, Quituizaca pleaded guilty to unlawful reentry.

The case was investigated by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team and is part of Operation Take Back America, which uses the resources of the U.S. Department of Justice to curb the invasion of undocumented immigrants, eliminate cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect American communities from violent crime.

Dalton Zbierski is a story desk editor and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.

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Ecuadorian manslaughter convict sentenced in Connecticut for illegally returning to United States

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