Feds deport undocumented immigrant accused of trespassing Lawrence McClure’s home

The undocumented immigrant accused of trespassing Rep. Lawrence McClure’s house was deported last month after his criminal misdemeanor charges were dropped.

A Judge granted a motion to dismiss the case against Esvin Guzman Morales despite the prosecution’s objections. 

In a court filing this Spring, his public defender argued Guzman Morales made “irrational statements” that made it appear he had “paranoid delusions” and “is likely suffering from a mental illness.”

“Under the circumstances, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Defendant is not mentally competent to proceed,” the defense said, before a doctor added that he was not mentally competent to stand trial. 

McClure told Florida Politics that having Guzman Morales out of the country, even if he will not be held criminally responsible, brings “a level of peace.”

“Although they weren’t able to prosecute … I do think that gentlemen shouldn’t be in the United States of America,” McClure said. “Whenever something traumatic happens when you have closure, finality — that can look a variety of different ways.”

Following a Florida Politics public records request, the State Attorney’s Office recently released a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office investigative report that gives more insight into what happened at McClure’s home in rural Dover on Dec. 1, 2024.

McClure, a top lawmaker who helped guide last year’s budget to the finish line, was driving to Tallahassee when the situation unfolded. His wife was outside feeding the cows back home when she saw Guzman Morales walking down the driveway. Startled, she hadn’t been expecting any visitors and was home alone with their kids.

Guzman Morales, who jumped a locked gate to get onto her property, followed Courtney McClure from the end of her driveway to the front door, according to the report.

“The front door is a big glass pane, and the guy walked right up to the door, super close, not a little bit away like a normal person. She told him through the door that he needed to leave several times but he didn’t listen,” the Sheriff’s report said.

“She went and got her husband’s gun and pointed it at the glass and told him again to go away, and he still didn’t listen. Then she opened the door and pointed the gun at him and told him, ‘If you don’t leave I’m going to f*****g shoot you.’”

Then, Guzman Morales jumped a barbed-wire fence, ran across the pasture and hopped another fence into McClure’s neighbor’s yard, the Sheriff’s report said. The neighbor, Patrick Thomas, was McClure’s cousin.

Courtney McClure called Thomas to warn him and then called her husband, who alerted law enforcement.

Thomas, who was also armed, described finding Guzman Morales on his back porch.

Thomas “told him to leave and he didn’t listen, so he drew his gun from his hip and pointed it at the man and again told him to leave. He could see the man was talking on a cellphone in Spanish, and seemed to be freaking out,” the Sheriff’s report said. Thomas “could see he wasn’t a threat at the moment so he holstered his gun, and tried to use the little bit of Spanish he knows to talk to him.”

An emotional Guzman Morales wore shoes caked in dirt when law enforcement arrived.

“I observed Esvin Guzman Morales to be extremely distraught, at one point coming to tears trying to explain the situation,” a deputy wrote in the investigative report.

Through a Spanish interpreter, Guzman Morales sounded delusional.

Guzman Morales told authorities that he “got dropped off by his friends in a white van who left him. Someone took his car yesterday and they’re trying to kill him. They are following him with drones, and there are drones in his house.”

Guzman Morales, a 32-year-old from Guatemala, was deported Sept. 29, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) confirmed to Florida Politics.

He had previously entered the United States illegally in 2018, arriving through San Luis, Arizona, an ICE spokesperson said.

In addition to his arrest for burglary of an occupied dwelling and trespassing, ICE said Guzman Morales had also been arrested in April for domestic violence. The domestic violence case stemmed from a 2023 incident where he was accused of twisting a woman’s arm around her back. He had pleaded not guilty.

“Had he not been here illegally and had he been picked up and held, he wouldn’t have been at my front door,” McClure said about Guzman Morales’ past. “He broke the laws of the land to come here illegally and then other laws of land once he was here.”

McClure disclosed what happened to his family on the House floor just before lawmakers voted on a big immigration bill this year.

McClure was hesitant to discuss the frightening situation and talk about his family, but said House Speaker Daniel Perez, a good friend, encouraged him to share it. 

The situation has helped guide his stance against illegal immigration, McClure said.

“I think a large part of our job as part-time legislators is to bring our personal experiences and our personal beliefs and then overlay them with the issues. That makes for the best legislator in my experience,” he said.